TROUBLED rail firm Arriva Trains Northern has turned to a former Railtrack chief in a bid to turn its fortunes around.

The company, which has been threatened with a £2m fine for cancelled services, last night announced the appointment of a new managing director.

Ray Price, 46, takes over from Nigel Patterson, who quit his £80,000-a-year job last month following fierce criticism from passenger groups of Arriva's performance.

He starts work today as a new stripped-down winter timetable begins -including more than 1,000 cuts to weekly services.

Mr Price has 30 years' experience of the railway industry in a number of management posts, and was responsible for the introduction of electrified services from Kings Cross to Edinburgh.

He has spent the past three years as director of Railtrack's East Anglia zone operations.

He will be given the task of steering Arriva Trains Northern through the potentially difficult months ahead.

The company has about three weeks to convince the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) it can continue to operate a "proper service" or face a fine and the potential loss of its franchise.

Arriva must also hit stringent targets imposed by the SRA on the recruitment of drivers if it wants to avoid more financial penalties.

The company has pledged a robust and reliable timetable during the winter months, but warned it could be six months before services are back to normal.

Its new timetable, agreed with the SRA, runs until February 24 and will mean scores of trains being replaced by buses on routes including the Transpennine Express and the Newcastle-Darlington-Middlesbrough-Saltburn service.

North-East passengers have been warned to expect severe disruption to affected services.

Ernie Preston, secretary of the North-East Rail Passengers Committee, said: "There are bound to be people milling around at train stations wondering where their train is and what is happening.

"Therefore Arriva must make sure the new timetable is operated reliably as advertised.

"It must also make sure, most importantly, that the staff on the ground help the passenger to get the right information that they need."