Town hall chiefs are in talks to take over the Northern rail franchise.

Various councils, including, Kirklees and Calderdale, have an agreement in principle with the Government to look at the franchise option.

It’s claimed the proposals will save at least £20m a year by merging the Transpennine and Northern Rail franchises into one firm when their contracts end in 2016.

It’s likely a committee of councillors – instead of the Department for Transport – could appoint and oversee train operators, set train fares and decide on investment projects.

The Examiner reported in April that the idea was being led locally by the Leeds City Region and Kirklees Council chief executive, Adrian Lythgo, has been involved in discussions so far.

Clr Mehboob Khan, Kirklees leader, said: “There is a partnership of local councils looking at the business case for the northern line franchise.

“I’ve been to various meetings and our chief executive had been involved in discussions as well on the subject.

“It’s at a very early stage but we believe the benefits could well be significant for us in the long term.

“We want and need to see greater investment – one of the biggest drawbacks of the present railway system is the inflexibility of the franchise.

“It makes it difficult for network operators to be able to work to improve services right where they are needed.

“If the franchise is done in this way there could be greater improvements in punctuality, quality of trains and frequency of trains.

“Those benefits would be for West Yorkshire residents, including here in Kirklees.”

He explained that complex legal arrangements needed to be discussed with the Department of Transport so that taxpayers would not be impacted on further.

Clr Khan added: “It’s not just about now either, if the Government pulled the plug on HS2 it would cause major problems for northern rail services. By 2022 there would be no more capacity on the northern railways.

“The franchise option is one way we can work on behalf of local people to really make it better.”

Manchester City Council’s executive is discussing the Rail North franchise this week.

The Greater Manchester City Deal included commitments to work with South and West Yorkshire to develop detailed proposals for devolution of rail franchises, dubbed Rail North.