A MASSIVE renovation project to bring a disused railway station platform back into use is well under way.

Platform five at Bolton railway station will be open again in a matter of weeks, paving the way for a transformation of the town’s train services.

The engineering work is part of a £200 million Network Rail scheme that will allow electric trains to pass through the town for the first time and bring back trains to Scotland.

Bolton station will be shut for 16 days in August to allow hundreds of engineers to complete their work to bring back platform five.

Krystle Hodgson, project manager for Network Rail, said: “Currently, if a fast service gets stuck behind a train that is stopping then there is no way for it to overtake.

“This is a huge project and there will be hundreds of people working here during the blockade — that is why we have needed to close the station. The biggest challenge is the sheer size of the platforms

“We originally wanted to shut it for 21 days, but we changed our programme to do more preparatory work which means we can finish in 16 days. During the closure, we will be working 24 hours a day. We could not do this work without closing the station, it would be impossible.”

After platform five re-opens, platform four will shut for the next stage of improvement works to be completed. It is expected to re-open

The station had a fifth platform until the early 1990s, before the track was concreted over.

During the two-week blockade from August , 1,100m of track will be renewed.