Question: What company jointly owned a British train operating company that had a steering partnership with a rail programme in Northern England to improve and increase train services and reduce journey times between its major cities and towns by electrifying lines and removing a major rail bottleneck in Manchester?

A railgrinder (or rail grinder) is a maintenance of way vehicle or train used to restore the profile and remove irregularities from worn tracks to extend its life and to improve the ride of trains using the track.  Rail grinders were developed to increase the lifespan of the tracks being serviced for rail corrugation.  Rail grinding is a process that is done to stop the deformation due to use and friction on railroad tracks by removing deformations and corrosion.  Railroad tracks that experience continual use are more likely to experience corrugation and overall wear.  Rail grinders are used to grind the tracks when rail corrugation is present, or before corrugation begins to form on the tracks.  Major freight train tracks use rail grinders for track maintenance based the interval of tonnage, rather than time.  Transit systems and subways in major cities continue to use scheduled rail grinding processes to combat the corrugation common to heavily used tracks.  Rail-grinding equipment may be mounted on a single self-propelled vehicle or on a dedicated rail-grinding train which, when used on an extensive network, may include crew quarters.  The grinding wheels, of which there may be more than 100, are set at controlled angles to restore the track to its correct profile. <SEP> First TransPennine Express was a British train operating company jointly owned by FirstGroup and Keolis which operated the TransPennine Express franchise.  First TransPennine Express ran regular Express regional railway services between the major cities of Northern England as well as Scotland. <SEP> Go-Op (full name Go!  Cooperative Ltd), is an open access train operating company which is currently proposing to operate a service between Taunton and Swindon, via Westbury.  It aims to become the first cooperatively owned train operating company in the United Kingdom, to improve access to the public transport infrastructure through open access rail services linking main lines to smaller market towns, and co-ordinating services with light rail and bus links and car pools.  Go-Op intended to begin operating rail services in the spring of 2014, however difficulties in obtaining rolling stock and severe financial difficulties incurred by their main partner The Co-operative Bank have delayed these plans. <SEP>  It is predicted to stimulate economic growth in the region.  The project has several elements but the prime objective is to eradicate the bottleneck in Manchester and allow trains to travel through the city at speed without stopping.  The project was announced as the Manchester Hub in 2009. The Northern Hub is a rail programme in Northern England to improve and increase train services and reduce journey times between its major cities and towns by electrifying lines and removing a major rail bottleneck in Manchester.  The project's steering partnership involves Network Rail, Deutsche Bahn, First TransPennine Express, Northern Rail, East Midlands Trains, CrossCountry, Freightliner, the Department for Transport, Transport for Greater Manchester and Merseytravel.