Regional transport leaders say cuts to train services are undermining ambitions to attract more people to use the railways.
Members of the Transport for the North (TfN) board have voiced their concerns over the frequency of train cancellations by operators Northern and TransPennine Express.
Both companies continue to run reduced timetables compared to the immediate pre-Covid era with high staff sickness levels and a large backlog in the training of new drivers being blamed for the impact on services.
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TfN leaders from 20 council areas and 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships spoke out after Hull North MP Dame Diana Johnson raised the issue of train cancellations on Transpennine Express services in the House of Commons.
She said: "The government and the rail industry are failing Hull and the Humber. This has nothing to do with strikes.
"The government left out Hull and the Humber from the 30-year Integrated Rail Plan last year. TransPennine are cancelling services every day because they can't provide drivers for the trains and signalling seems to be a problem with Network Rail on a number of occasions each week."
Her comments were echoed hours later at a TfN board meeting held in Harrogate. The sub-national body is responsible for transport strategy and infrastructure development across the North of England.
Chairman Liverpool City Region's transport committee Councillor Liam Robinson said: "There are a lot of members of all geographies and all political persuasions who are very frustrated with the current state of affairs across the North's rail network. We were all signed up to a vision of an ambitious, significantly improved rail network across the North of England.
"However, the practical reality today is we have got something that is nowhere near as reliable as it should be and, frankly, something that has seen service cuts from where it was a few years ago. None of that is acceptable on a number of different levels.
"If Levelling Up is to mean anything, it should mean an expanded rail network in the North of England and not something that is reduced backwards. More fundamentally, we know there is all the mood music about significant cuts to railway budgets across this country and significant cuts to the operational budgets for Northern Rail and TransPennine Express would translate into service cuts in the North of England.
"It's an elephant in the room but it needs to be said publicly. None of this would be acceptable to any of us and if we don't push back on that it would be a dereliction of duty for the 15 million people travelling around our region."
Cllr Robinson said TfN should be part of the solution by "shining a spotlight on dark corners of the rail industry". He highlighted £900m worth of dividends paid out to shareholders of railway stock leasing companies in 2020 as one example of how funding for the industry should be reviewed.
"2020 was the year of the pandemic when most businesses in the North of England were losing money and had to be dependent on government grants to see them through. So why is this being allowed to happen with the railway stock leasing companies?
"There are lots of ways that Transport the North can really investigate that, challenge it and make sure some of that money in the future is recaptured to protect services. If we do that in the North of England, I think the whole of the travelling public in the UK would owe us a debt of gratitude because we can show there are ways that taxpayers' money can be used much better to protect services."
West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin added: "As a board we should be shouting about those cuts at Northern and while we welcome investment in TransPennine, if it's a reduced service it's not going to be fit for purpose. We should be much more vocal in pushing back against these cuts."
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