Rail passengers were hit by cancellations and delays on the first working day of new timetables to provide 1,000 extra services a week.
The disruption reignited calls for Northern to be stripped of its franchise.
Although the north of England operator blamed train faults, driver sickness and signalling problems for delays and cancellations.
Rail data website trains.im reported that 9% of Northern services – some 178 trains – were cancelled or arrived at least half-an-hour late.
The figure was higher for TransPennine Express at 27%.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the “chaos and misery” has “gone on far too long” and claimed the Government must take action this week if it is “serious about supporting the North”.
He said: “As a first step, it should strip Northern of its franchise.”
Northern passenger Darren Burke, on a late-running “overcrowded” train from Sheffield to Doncaster, said: “You can imagine the general unpleasant mood and grumbles.”
But a Northern spokesman insisted “very few” of its 2,800 services had seen problems today.
Great Western passengers were also unhappy.
Javier Torregrossa wrote: “I was late to work because of the shambles by @GWRHelp new timetable.”
