Rail company Northern should lose its franchise if improvements are not made, the mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region have said.

A phone call between Andy Burnham, Steve Rotheram and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling took place to discuss disruption and mass cancellations. The mayors said Northern needs to publish an action plan so it can be held to account by passengers. A spokesman for the government said the disruption has been "unacceptable".

The mayors said the chaos on the network has been "so extreme" that Northern has "lost the benefit of the doubt". Mr Grayling told the House of Commons that the issues with Northern were a "Network Rail failure."

"This problem has arisen for two prime reasons: the problems with electrification Network Rail is carrying out on the line through Bolton and the failure of Network Rail to deliver a finalised timetable in time," he said. A spokesman for the Department for Transport said improving Northern services is Mr Grayling's "top priority".