COMMUTERS, students and businesses in and around Lancaster could be left high and dry by plans to privatise the area's railway network.

That's the claim from city council leader Stanley Henig who's outraged at the minimum level of cross country train services proposed by rail regulators this week. Under the proposals, private train operators may only provide half the current level of services to and from Lancaster and Morecambe once privatisation takes place.

Transport chiefs at Lancaster City Council are set to discuss the OPRAF (Office of Passengers Rail and Franchising) service plans at an emergency meeting during the next few days.

Cllr Henig said routes to Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh were likely to be affected.

He said: "Services should change for the better and not for the worse. If rail services to Lancaster were halved it would be really bad news."

"On one hand, the government is trying to encourage more people to use public transport and refuse to sanction developments like Lancaster's western by-pass yet on the other they're cutting the standards of public transport.

"This will force people to start using their cars when in the past they'd relied on trains."

A OPRAF spokesman said: "At the moment proposals are only in the consultation period. It means the new operators will not be able to drop below a certain level of services. It will provide a greater flexibility." Rail services are set to go out to tender to private investors later in the year.

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