FULL service on the trains will not return until December it has been revealed.
The electrification upgrades to the Bolton lines have caused disruption and the project has been delayed by two years.


In a letter to the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham yesterday, Network Rail said full service will finally be able to run from Monday, December 10.
Mr Burnham said: “I had a letter today from Network Rail with the date finally, from when full service can run.
“It’s December 10, which is still some time off but I have been pressuring them.”
The letter, seen by The Bolton News, from Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s route managing director, says: “Together with our colleagues at Northern, we will set customer expectation far more carefully. Our aim is to complete the infrastructure upgrade, so that full services can run from 10 December.”
The electrification works are part of Network Rail’s multi-billion pound Great North Rail Project, part of which is upgrading the 25-mile stretch between Manchester and Preston via Bolton.
Electrification means adding overhead powerlines to tracks and work has included raising bridges and piling.
The impact has been felt throughout the town, including in Moses Gate and Church Road in Farnworth and the Hazlemere estate in Kearsley, all of which lie close to electrification sites.
The letter notes the impact the work has caused residents. 
Mr Frobisher says: “Poor ground conditions followed by the unfortunate liquidation of Carillion Plc, the main contractor for the scheme, have delayed us.”
Amey has been appointed the new lead contractor for the project. 
Of the 1,501 steel column foundations which are being installed, 56 are left. 
Mr Frobisher’s letter warned that in order to finish by December 10 ‘further week closures in late summer and autumn’ would be needed.
However, some residents are not certain that the latest set of promises will be kept.
Cllr Mark Cunningham, who lives on Church Road where the infrastructure work has been a long term problem, said he was “very sceptical” about the December completion date.
He added: “I really want to believe it but we are only in May so that is another seven months of misery as far as I am concerned.”
Church Road had been a key site for Network Rail as the company completed works associated with electrification.
But residents have repeatedly complained about large vehicles on the street, as well as disruption early in the morning and late at night.
Similar problems have been noted at the Hazlemere estate, where one resident, Bev Steele, called the announcement of an end to the work a “relief”.
She added that recent meetings between people in the area and rail officials had been productive.
She said: “Any form of end date is a big relief to us after the problems we have had.
“But the cooperation we have had recently has been very reassuring.”
Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi helped to arrange meetings between the residents and rail officials.
She said she was “pleased” at the announcement of the December 10 completion date and added that it would come as a “huge relief” to the residents.