(02 Jan 2020, 5:00 pm)streetdeckfan wrote If they have been, I'm surprised it's taken them this long to do it.
Although, I can't help but think what affect this is going to have on the sale of Arriva. If anything, not having that franchise may make Arriva more appealing to any prospective buyers!

I personally rarely use Northern much these days, the extend of my usage is between Bishop and Darlington these days and it's actually pretty rare that it's late (at least when I use it)

From a regular user on the Bishop Line, whilst some cancellations occur at times (especially on weekends), the North East side of the network isn't too bad although could be better, the bulk of the issues have come from Yorkshire and the North West where services are being cancelled mostly due to members of train crew being unavailable and sometimes lack of serviceable trains being available.

I'm not quite sure what stripping them of the franchise is going to achieve as it's unlikely the current issues can magically be resolved. The increase of services and the need for more trains in this franchise was always going to be a struggle but delayed delivery of new trains and cascades certainly haven't helped them.