There's a lot more to a train than the carriage you sit in, or the track you take. Since the privatisation of rail, trains have become big business in an industry that remains a complicated mix of the private and the public.

News that the transport company MTL is being taken over by transport operators Arriva is important for this region. For MTL operates the rail franchise Northern Spirit, which is responsible for the trans-Pennine route as well as local rural services.

Arriva has indicated that it does not wish to retain the Northern Spirit franchise under existing terms for more than 12 months. At first this looks like potentially alarming news - both for passengers who use Northern Spirits trains and for the company's employees in York. Yet the trains will continue to run whatever happens, thanks to the public regulations that govern the now privately-run railway industry.

Whoever takes over the Northern Spirit franchise will have responsibility for a company that has a profitable heart, in the shape of the trans-Pennine route, drained by demanding arteries, in the shape of the rural services. The trains toiling across the Pennines make money, the local rural services do not. This is especially so since a reduction in state subsidies to rural services forced Northern Spirit to use its trans-Pennine profits to shore up its rural routes.

Such are the complications of railway life in the private sector. Some routes make big money, others lose money by the carriage-load. Trying to balance the demands of share-holders with the needs of travellers who happen to live in unprofitable areas was always going to be a tricky business.

The announcement of Arriva's take-over of MTL will probably been seen as good news by most employees of Northern Spirit, for at least this ends one period of uncertainty. Now all they have to worry about is who will own them next.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.