West Cumbria will "wither and die on the vine" unless the coastal train service is improved, according to the Allerdale council leader.

Alan Smith blasted the region's "third world" rail service between Barrow and Carlisle as he gave his backing to calls for the re-nationalisation of the railways.

He made the comments as councillors voted to support a motion calling for railway companies across the UK to be returned to public ownership, including train firm Northern which runs the troubled service.

The move comes after rail chaos over the peak holiday season sparked a £285,000 marketing campaign from the rail operators in a bid to restore passenger confidence.

Councillor Smith said: "The railway system in the UK is shot at. I can't understand my friends on the left [Conservatives and Independents] are opposing the motion. If you look at our railway line, it's worse than the national. We need to get a good railway line on the west coast and we haven't got that. Every winter part of the railway line on the Solway Firth is washed away. You wouldn't get that in a third world country, but that's what we have to put up with on the west coast of Cumbria.

"We need West Cumbria sorted out and we need it opened up or we are going to wither and die on the vine."

The motion raised by Tony Lywood, Labour councillor for Keswick, prompted a colourful debate in the council chamber at yesterday's [Wednesday] full council meeting.

He said: "Train punctuality is the worst since 2006, and at the same time fares have increased by 50 per cent. There is a shambles around our railway companies and yet the strange fact is that most UK rail companies are already partly or completely state-owned. When I mean state-owned, I mean foreign state-owned. Public ownership is already here. It's just public ownership by foreign governments to subsidise their own railways. You could not make it up.

"Allerdale council should fully support the public ownership of UK railways including Northern which operates in our borough.

"What we need is a proper integrated rail service and that can only happen if this is taken back into social ownership."

The Conservatives agreed that services needed to be improved but did not agree that the re-nationalisation of the railways was the solution.

But their amendment to the motion stating that Allerdale council fully supports "better and improved" ownership of railways was voted down by Labour.

Tory leader Tony Annison said he would support any motion including the dualing of the line.

Mark Jenkinson, Tory councillor for Seaton, said: "I'm grateful to councillor Lywood for finding fault in the Conservative Government, so much so that he wants to give more control to Transport secretary Chris Grayling.

"No one would deny calls for investment but it highlights the fact that the problems are with with the nationalised parts of the service so how would nationalising the rest help?

"The rail network is publicly-owned Network Rail. It is they who are responsible for improvements and infrastructure not the train companies.

"I don't think the answer is to create a larger monopoly but to open it up to others. Consumer choice will drive up standards."