A RAIL firm which runs services in Lancashire has topped a national league of shame - after cancelling an average of 23 trains a day last year.

Northern Rail - which runs services between Clitheroe and Manchester, Blackpool and Colne and Blackpool and York - axed 8,670 services in the year to March 31.

The figures follow a damning report from an influential committee of MPs which accused the Government of having "lost interest in rail punctuality and reliability".

Northern Rail topped the cancellation league ahead of First Great Western (8,153 cancellations), First Scot Rail (7,708), National Express East Anglia (7,307) and Southern (5,627).

Northern does, however, run the highest number of services in the country - 2,494 trains each day across northern England.