TRANSPORT group Arriva last night rolled out plans to revitalise the region's rail system.

The Sunderland company is bidding to take over the new Transpennine franchise.

Arriva is promising a faster and more efficient service to attract customers away from their cars.

A key to their plan is to open up the under-used east coast section of track from Sunderland down to York, offering more passengers a direct service to Manchester and Liverpool.

Bob Davies, Arriva's chief executive said: "We will be doubling the present service from the North-East to Manchester and Liverpool to twice an hour.

"We will be incorporating the line from Sunderland, through Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, down to York, giving more users more chance to use a direct route across the Pennines."

Arriva bosses were in Newcastle last night to discuss the details of their bid with key regional transport user groups.

The company's document - A Bid for the Region, from the Region - hopes to attract support from passengers using rail travel by promising to cut some of the 300 million work hours lost each year due to delays, and by helping the environment by reducing fuel emissions.

Among the improvements Arriva has promised is a reduction in travel times from Newcastle to Liverpool to three hours.

Companies have been invited to submit proposals for the Transpennine franchise to the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority on how they would operate the service after next April.

Initial bids have to be submitted by August 7 and the winning bid will be selected from a shortlist of nine companies.