A RAIL company already facing a £2m fine after driver shortages forced it to axe services, has been accused of attempting to poach operators from a rival.

Arriva Trains Northern has been threatened with the penalty by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) after cancelling about 1,000 trains a week across the region, between May and September.

But as the rail industry as a whole tries desperately to get to grips with a crisis in driver recruitment and retention, First North Western trains has complained to the SRA about Arriva.

It said that several of its drivers were contacted at home by Arriva with job offers.

"We have evidence that they have tried to poach our drivers by writing to them at home, which contravenes industry regulations," said Robin Etherington, First North group spokesman .

"All this will do is simply shift the driver shortages from one part of the country to another."

But an Arriva spokesman denied cold-calling First North Western's drivers, and said that the drivers concerned had actually approached Arriva in the first instance, then subsequently been contacted by Arriva.

After it was realised the procedure could be misconstrued as poaching, their recruitment was not pursued.

Euan Cameron, managing director of Arriva Trains Northern, insisted his company had not broken the rules.

"The Association to Train Operating Companies has a very strict code of conduct for driver recruitment," he said.

"We stick not only to the letter of that code but also to the spirit of it.

"We recognised that First North Western would have problems with their services this winter and we did not want to make matters any worse."