TROUBLED rail operator Northern Rail - which employs more than 200 people across Cumbria - is being taken into public ownership, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed.

In a statement issued within the last hour, Mr Shapps said: "I am announcing today that from March 1 the Northern Rail franchise will be taken into public ownership and the government will begin operating services through the public-sector operator - the so-called operator of last resort.

"The public-sector operator is a company entirely owned by my department and run by experienced railway managers.

"It already owns and oversee another franchise, East Coast, which it brands as London North Eastern Railway."

Reacting to the long-expected announcement, Craig Johnston, a full-time official with the RMT rail workers union, said: "I'm not surprised.

"It was a financial basket case which has been a disaster in terms of its performance, and best by industrial unrest the likes of which we have never seen before.

"We will now look at the detail of what the Department for Transport intend to do with the franchise. From my point of view, there will not be any change in how Northern operates until the inherent problems are sorted out - in particular the short staffing and the over-reliance on overtime. "The problems are still there.

"My message to Grant Shapps is that MPs need to get down to the business of making it a stable, reliable, and robust rail service. We don't want any more of chaos and timetable trauma."

The ailing franchise has been repeatedly criticised for cancellations and delays in Cumbria and across the north in recent years, including suspending services for several weeks on the Lakes Line from Oxenholme to Windermere. There is also a bitter and ongoing dispute with the RMT over plans to remove guards from some services.