TEA-TIME commuters were braced for a difficult journey home tonight after chaos and cancellations greeted the new Northern Rail timetable across its network this morning.

As passengers turned up to travel from Bolton this morning, they were faced with departure boards showing trains cancelled and confusion as to when and where particular trains were running to with bewildered station staff left to pick up the pieces.

One disgruntled passenger Rupert Greenhalgh, who tweeted that he was calling on the boss of Northern Rail to resign, tweeted: "Chaos ensues repeat cancellations and new timetable with less trains.

One angry commuter travelling into Bolton spent 90 minutes on a journey, which normally take him 39 minutes from Ashton-under-Lyne this morning.

He said: "There were cancellations all over the network with massive delays being posted on train departure boards.

"To deal with the chaos Northern Rail had sent all their managers out on to the main platforms with one even admitting to me that he was 'ashamed' of the delays."

When the commuter eventually arrived into Manchester Victoria he said passengers were milling about and facing "horrendous delays" before he managed to catch a train to Salford Crescent.

He added: "When I eventually got into Bolton there was utter confusion with most of it being blamed on a lack of drivers and a lack of staff, who didn't really know what the timetable was or even where the trains were running to."

Speaking about today’s disruption, Jeff Davies, chairman of the Bolton Rail Users Group said: “Today, Northern has increased services for other areas, but not Bolton’s. 

"They haven’t had any extra trains and Bolton travellers are being made to pay the price in cancelled services. That isn’t fair and needs to be stopped. 

"The shortage of trains may not be Northern’s responsibility, but how it manages its services and trains and deal with that shortage is. 

“There are issues here which Transport for Greater Manchester and the Rail North Partnership should look at urgently.”

Anthony Smith, chief executive of passenger watchdog Transport Focus, said: "Having plenty of staff on the ground from the start and during the initial transition, when changes bed down, will be critical."

Rail passengers travelling in and out of Bolton, particularly if they are trying to catch a flight from Manchester Airport, should read the live board in which Northern Rail is suggesting delays of up to two hours for this afternoon’s commute.

The Bolton News:

A spokesman for Northern said: “It has been a difficult morning for some of our customers, in particular on a number of routes around north Manchester extending up to Blackpool, and we are very sorry for the delays and cancellations they have experienced.

The spokesman added: “We will continue to do everything we can to ensure we minimise any service disruption and keep customers informed as quickly as we can through our website and social media. We are working hard to address the issues we faced this morning and are developing plans to help our customers get where they need to be this evening and for the rest of the week.”

“The May 2018 timetable change, which went live today for commuters, has seen around 90% of our services change and an extra 1,300 train services a week introduced across our network, the biggest change to local rail for many years. This remains a significant operational challenge and we continue to expect some localised service disruption, which could happen at very short-notice.”

"Northern customers are urged to check their train times before they travel at National Rail Enquiries or on our website, and on twitter at @northernassist, where we will post notification of known disruption as soon as we can.

"The May 2018 timetable change, which went live today for commuters, has involved changing the times of about 90% of our 2,600 daily services, in many cases to make room for changes to longer-distance train services.

"Some services now depart a minute earlier or later than previously but for other services there have been more fundamental changes to departure times, frequency and types of train operated.

"We are also introducing an extra 1,300 train services per week as part of our modernisation plans."

For more up to date information go to journeycheck.com/northern

HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY TRAINS DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS TODAY? Let us know in the comments below