Rail campaigners will target stations in northern England on Friday as RMT ramps up its anti-cuts campaign.

Franchises for Northern Rail and Trans-Pennine Express services are up for grabs and the rail union warns privateers are planning higher fares, reduced services, ticket-office closures and driver-only trains.

RMT says clapped-out Pacer trains will still be run and ramshackle 30-year-old Tube trains will be transferred north. Newer rolling stock is being sent south.

The union says the process makes a mockery of Chancellor George Osborne’s “northern powerhouse” pledges.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT activists and their supporters in the community will be out and about warning again of the nightmare scenario if the government is allowed to bulldoze through plans for the Northern and Trans-Pennine franchises that would axe jobs and safety and condemn the north to decades of transport misery at a time of surging demand.”