BLINKERED Tory bureaucrats unveiled their latest rushed bid to keep rail in private hands yesterday with a six-firm shortlist for key northern routes.

Three firms apiece were given the green light to vie for the Northern Rail and TransPeninne Express franchises by ministers desperate to close the door to a taxpayer-owned network following next year’s general election.

The £1 billion Northern Rail franchise will be handed to German state-owned Arriva Rail North, French part-state-owned Govia Northern Ltd or will stay in the hands of existing contractor Dutch part-state-owned Abellio Northern.

An incestuous web of competing bidders on the east-west TransPennine route includes existing operator FirstGroup and its current partner, 70 per cent French government-owned Keolis.

The two firms have opted go it alone in an attempt to grab the contract for themselves.

Notorious public-transport profiteer Stagecoach makes up the list of preferred TransPennine bidders, with the winner to be announced in December 2015.

Rail union RMT warned passengers to prepare for a raft of cuts designed to make the £1 billion Northern Rail contract more attractive to privateers.

It released a dossier earlier in the week which it said showed the scale of plans to slash services and staffing.

Northern Rail has already announced that off-peak tickets will no longer be accepted between 4pm and 6.29pm on its services.

“The only solution to this racketeering on our railway tracks is public ownership and the return of our railways to the people on the basis that they are run as a public service and not as a get-rich-quick scheme for greedy private train companies,” said RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash.