A transport campaigner has called on the Government to provide a fair deal for rail passengers in the North.

Stephen Waring, chairman of the Halifax and District Rail Action Group has urged transport chiefs to create a modern railway that becomes the first choice travel mode for more and more people.

“Demand for rail travel in the North continues to increase,” he said.

“People want to travel by train. Even more of them will do so if they are offered a high quality service with fast and modern trains that have enough seats, with fares that are seen as value for money.

“New trains are also a must, with more carriages both to relieve the overcrowding endured by today’s commuters and to allow for growth.”

Mr Waring said “new trains were a must” and called on officials to deliver improvements before the high speed HS3 link between Leeds and Manchester is delivered.

The HS3 link was proposed as part of the controversial HS2 rail from London to Manchester and Leeds but has not been confirmed.

He added: “Many are excited by the idea of HS3 but developments of that scale are decades away and there is much to be decided about what form exactly HS3 will take.

“Many of us can see little point in a future promise of a half-hour journey time between the centres of Manchester and Leeds if the numerous settlements in between – places such as Halifax, Bradford and Huddersfield – are left with a slow and poorly connected service.

Much more is needed, much sooner.

And Mr Waring has refuted claims by the Department for Transport that a “third of Britain’s rail subsidy” is spent on Northern Rail.

In a letter to Transport Secretary Patrick Mcloughlin he says the department has got its sums wrong.

Mr Waring said his research indicated Northern Rail received £707m in 2013/14 – just 17% of the total share and that the subsidy per passenger mile (36.6p) was far cheaper than Scotland (79.3p) or Wales (48.9p).

“The combined Northern Rail and TransPennine Express subsidy actually offers better value for money to the state than the two comparable train operators in Wales and Scotland,” he said.

“Interestingly the population covered by the North of England’s regional train operators is roundly three times that of Scotland.”