A WESTHOUGHTON councillor has persuaded train bosses to help the town's residents keep a direct link to Manchester when work begins on the Farnworth tunnels project.

The Network Rail five-month scheme, which begins at the start of next month, will lead to severe limitations on the number of trains coming through the borough and on to Manchester.

One of the services affected is the Southport to Manchester Airport service which takes in Westhoughton and Bolton — but during the project it is set to be re-routed through Hindley along the Atherton line to Salford Crescent.

Cllr David Chadwick, who is standing for re-election as a councillor for the Westhoughton South seat, has lobbied both Network Rail and local provider Northern Rail to agree to concessions to ease the inconvenience for residents in Westhoughton.

He has secured extra stops at Daisy Hill in the morning peak time between 7am and 10am — with Manchester bound trains stopping at the station at 7.39am, 8.01am, 8.39am, 9.07am and 9.39am.

In the evening, trains heading from Manchester to Southport will stop at Daisy Hill at 4:13pm, 4:48pm, 5:49pm and 6:48pm.

In addition, Cllr Chadwick said he has managed to arrange a replacement bus service for the early morning peak period, which will link-up Westhoughton and Daisy Hill stations — leaving the former at 6:55 a.m, 7:20am,7:45am, 8:25am, 8:50am. 9:20am. 10:00am.

In the evening peak time a bus will leave Daisy Hill — heading to Westhoughton at 3:45pm, 4:20pm, 4:55pm, 5:25pm, 5:55pm, 6:20pm and 6:55pm.

Cllr Chadwick, Bolton Council's current member for transport said: “A lot of very hard work has gone into winning and achieving these concessions for Westhoughton residents in the face of the unavoidable disruptions as Network Rail prepare the line for electrification.

“Whilst I completely sympathise with the inconvenience that these arrangement will cause to Westhoughton residents, this now means that Westhoughton will still have a direct link to Manchester Piccadilly and the Airport.”

The Farnworth tunnels project forms part of the electrification of train lines in the region and is expected to cause major disruption on the borough’s rail network between May and October.

For updated timetables visit northernrail.org/news/7644