NORTHERN rail will reinstate 75 per cent of services that were removed as part of an emergency timetable on Monday.

The interim timetable was introduced on June 4 following major disruption caused by the new May timetable which was designed to provide extra services.

Northern said that the new timetable had to be planned again and delivered in only four months because of an added delay to the electrification of the Manchester to Preston via Bolton line.

As a result of this announcement in January, Northern had to rewrite its timetable plan and deliver driver training on new routes and on how to operate different trains.

This meant fewer train drivers were available to run scheduled train services while they completed their training and this resulted in a significant number of last-minute cancellations.

David Brown, Northern’s managing director, said: “The May timetable caused significant disruption for customers on some routes on our network and we’re truly sorry for that.”

Northern have 1,529 train drivers, 180 more than they would usually need to run a full timetable, but many had to complete training because of the delay to the electrification programme.

The interim timetable was introduced to accelerate the completion of driver training and improve the reliability of services by reducing the number of last-minute cancellations.

Although all services were supposed to be reintroduced by the end of July, the full timetable will not be in place until September.

Mr Brown said: “A phased introduction is the right approach to ensure a more stable and reliable service for customers.”

Blackpool

All 31 daily services which pass through Bolton from Blackpool to Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly will be reinstated on Monday.

17 of the 30 services a day that were removed will also be reinstated on Monday between Blackpool South and Colne, via Preston.

The remaining 13 services on this line will be reinstated in September.

Manchester

Four of the ten services a day that were removed on the Kirkby to Manchester Victoria line via Wigan will be introduced while the other six services will be reinstated in September.

All of 12 the Manchester Victoria to Stalybridge services that were removed will be reinstated in September.

Lancashire

There will be ten daily services out of the 16 removed reintroduced on July 30 between Ormskirk and Preston, with the remaining six reinstated in September.

All 24 services on the Lancaster to Morecambe line will be reinstated on Monday.

The four services between Preston and Blackburn will also be reinstated on Monday, but the six Blackburn to Southport services will be reinstated in September.

Lakes Line

Following the partial reintroduction of services on Monday July 2, a full service of 35 trains a day on the Lakes line will be reintroduced from July 30.