YOUR interesting article concerning overcrowding on Bolton's trains in 1988 (which ironically showed a new train stopping at a newly re-opened Lostock station), only emphasised that it is only Conservative Governments that deliver on new investment into our local rail network!
You asked "'who do you blame for this lack of progress?" with rail passenger numbers almost doubling since privatisation, it can only be the inactive Labour Governments in office between 1997 and 2010, as it failed miserably to invest in our local rail infrastructure?
As a senior Bolton Labour councillor admitted at a rail campaign meeting in Westhoughton in 2014, the lack of new trains was down to his party not including a requirement to invest in more rolling stock as part of their new operators service contracts!
Those who continually snipe in The Bolton News over rail services despite the unavoidable engineering problems that contractors have encountered (Moses Gate/electrification mast foundations) don't deflect from the fact that it is a Conservative Government (yet again!) that is investing heavily to deliver upgraded rail infrastructure locally and that local rail operators are committed to delivering a total fleet upgrade to replace the life expired rolling stock that was built in the 1980s.
Derek Bullock
Leigh Road
Westhoughton
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