A RAIL user group could bid for funds to run a Carlisle-Hellifield-Manchester Airport train service.

The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line are deciding how to progress a bid after a top level meeting with rail regulators in London.

Friends chairman Philip Johnston and policy adviser Edward Album met the chairman and chief executive of the Strategic Rail Authority, Richard Bowker, executive commercial director Nick Newton, and the head of the rail passenger partnership fund managing team, Hadi Zamani.

On the agenda were a number of issues, including how to secure a regular passenger train service on the line into Lancashire from the junction at Hellifield.

Mr Zamani said it would be possible for a group like the Friends to bid for funding and that the authority looked carefully at "grass roots" bids because passenger groups were likely to know best where gaps existed and where resources could be best directed.

Friends spokesman Pete Shaw said the message from the authority was that they liked to see drive and initiative from local people.

Mr Shaw said: "Bearing in mind that £40 million a year is available for Rail Passenger Partnership funding over the next 10 years, the Friends will now decide how to progress a bid."

Refranchising of the rail services was also on the Friends' agenda.

The user group commented on the way the new Northern Railways franchise will be formed, combining most of the current Arriva and First North Western areas, omitting the Transpennine spine, which will become a separate franchise.

They had worries that the rural lines might become isolated and vulnerable with the successful Transpennine route "cherry picked" out, but Mr Bowker said he took the opposite view.

"He said it would allow the new management team to focus their full attention on such routes. The SRA would be closely scrutinising prospective franchisees' business plans to ensure the proposals were realistic," said Mr Shaw.

The Friends also pointed out that with long running withdrawals, delays, cancellations and bus substitutions, the minimum service levels were not being delivered on the line.

They invited Mr Bowker to ride on the June 3 steam special on the Settle-Carlisle after learning his grandfather, an LMS master carpenter, had made the level crossing gates at Low House Crossing, near Armathwaite, on the historic line.

Mr Shaw said: "We were very pleased that such senior figures at the SRA agreed to meet us. The meeting was very friendly and constructive. It left us with the impression that in Richard Bowker the SRA has found a positive and committed new chairman with the added advantage that he has been involved in railways for a long time, and so brought with him a deep understanding of how they operate.

"This can only be beneficial to passengers, as his policies filter through to the sharp end."