RAIL passengers across the North have suffered more pain on the trains amid growing calls for the Prime Minister to sack Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and get a grip of the “chaos”.

Northern Rail was due to reinstate 75% of routes withdrawn after a new timetable caused severe disruption in May.

However, angry commuters were once again left bemoaning cancelled or late services across Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and the Yorkshire region.

A total of 53 trains were fully or partially cancelled by 10am on Monday, according to the Northern Fail app, developed by one long-suffering commuter to document disruption on the network. And the Trains.im website, which uses open rail data, reported 18% of services on the TransPennine route were either cancelled or more than 30 minutes late.

In Liverpool, as the Department for Transport retweeted about the reopening of Lime Street station after an eight-week upgrade of the city’s main train hub, passengers were bemoaning the fact their trains had not arrived.

aTobias1 tweeted: “First day back after two months of the Lime Street closures and the associated travel chaos and my train is cancelled ??????????”

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said the Prime Minister’s intervention was needed as he claimed there were no signs of improvement in services despite repeated calls for action from Mr Grayling.

In a letter to Theresa May, he wrote that performance on Northern Rail services “continued to be poor” following Mr Grayling’s statement in May that the issue was the number one priority for his department.

It came as a report by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) revealed a major impact on businesses, commuters and families, with former chancellor George Osborne calling for powers including spending to be devolved to Transport for the North.

It said that businesses had lost almost £38 million because of Northern Rail disruption, with the cost up to £1.3 million a day at its worst.

Asked if Mr Grayling should lose his job, Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Yes, ultimately, because he’s just not doing enough.”