JUST one train will stop in Bolton during the entire Easter weekend as engineering work is carried out.

Preparatory work on the Farnworth tunnels project is taking place over the weekend, meaning passengers will be forced to use replacement buses to get in and out of the borough.

The borough's main provider Northern Rail has replaced 306 of its services with buses, with just one train stopping at Bolton all weekend — the 7.11am to Southport service on Saturday morning.

Transpennine Express has said that all of its services which would normally stop in the borough will be replaced by buses between Friday and Monday.

Network Rail is using the weekend to carry out bridge strengthening work on one of the tunnels, which is necessary to allow the wider tunnel expansion scheme to get underway in May.

The work, which will see the line closed until October, forms part of the £1 billion electrification of the railways in the region — with extra room needed to fit the new overhead electric lines that are expected to be in operation by the end of 2016.

Ian Joslin, area director for Network Rail said: “The work on the line to in the Farnworth area is part of the wider improvements to provide electric trains on the route from December 2016 and similar work has taken place over recent weekends since March.

“We are utilising the bank holiday weekend to complete even more work ahead of the full line closure which takes place between May 2 and October 4.”

Alex Hynes, managing director for Northern Rail, said: “I’d like to remind our customers to check National Rail Enquiries carefully before they make their journey over Easter.

“We’ve had to make changes to our services in and out of Manchester to allow Network Rail to make important progress on crucial engineering work.

A First Transpennine Express spokesperson said: "We have provided detailed information about services on our network at stations and online and we are asking all customers to check the details of their journeys.

"On some services trains will be replaced by coaches and journey times extended. We appreciate this is not ideal but the improvement works will form part of future enhancements and provide a more reliable railway."

For full timetables visit northernrail.org and tpexpress.co.uk/travel-information