RAIL network bosses are to axe the daily Leeds to Glasgow via Settle and Carlisle return service from September.

However, the service will not disappear altogether, as it is scheduled to terminate at Carlisle and could start calling at more stations on the Settle-Carlisle line from next summer.

The train is the only direct service linking West Yorkshire and Glasgow and runs once in each direction every day.

It is also, say the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, the cheapest link between Leeds and Glasgow at £34.90. To go via York and Newcastle, which involves changing trains, costs £62.

The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has ordered the cutback of the Arriva Trains Northern service.

"One of the main reasons is that when it gets to Carlisle it joins the very busy West Coast Main Line. It is a small diesel train and if it breaks down it is a long way from its operating base and difficult to retrieve and this would cause a lot of problems," said a spokesman for the SRA. "It will now terminate at Carlisle and we are looking to see if it could serve more local stations between Leeds and Carlisle, such as Ribblehead, from next summer."

However, Pete Shaw, secretary of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, said: "This reason is flimsy in the extreme and seems barely credible. If every train on the network was assessed using these criteria the whole network would close down immediately.

"The Friends do not think that the class 158 Sprinter Express train - the type used on the Glasgow service - has a history of unreliability or failure.

"The Friends hope to muster a broad cross section of support to try and persuade the decision makers to keep the service running to Glasgow. We need to see expansion and improvement in our train services, not cutbacks."

Ray Price, managing director of service provider Arriva Trains Northern said: "We recognise the UK's rail industry is under significant financial pressure and the SRA is setting priorities to ensure the maximum passenger benefit from the available resources.

"We do appreciate that the SRA's decision will be a disappointment to users of the line, however, the SRA has indicated that other train operators already provide services between Carlisle and Glasgow Central."

The news comes in the week of the 40th anniversary of the Beeching report which led to the closure of a third of the national rail network.

o On Tuesday a coalition of 28 county and unitary councils, representing areas outside major conurbations, wrote to Transport Secretary Alastair Darling demanding local and regional rail services be expanded not contracted. They are also objecting to the SRA's reductions in local services and suspension of grants for local passenger and freight improvements.

The authorities say the reductions in service are due to cuts in the SRA's budget last December.