THE Transport Secretary has voiced his frustration at delayed railway upgrades which have caused severe disruption across Bolton.

Chris Grayling visited the town yesterday, on the same day as Network Rail representatives met with residents in some of the most heavily affected areas.

The Secretary of State for Transport said that it was difficult to deal with the delays because trains had to continue to run despite the work taking longer than expected.

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.

Mr Grayling said: “The delays are very frustrating, I’m as frustrated as anyone that there have been operational issues.

“It has proven more difficult to pile than expected, but it’s not as simple as saying ‘it’s running a few weeks late’ because what you have to do is carry on running the railway and, at the same time, give access to finish the work.”

Much of the disruption happens at night, when the work is timed so that trains can run during the day.

But many of Network Rail’s track access points are in suburban neighbourhoods, which means large vehicles travel through residential areas at disruptive times.

There has been a string of meetings between residents discussing issues caused by the work, including a joint consultation held in Farnworth on Thursday night.

People who attended voiced concerns about the potentially unsafe movement of heavy vehicles and its effects on the road, as well as environmental issues, as large numbers of trees have been torn down and litter has been left on streets and in vegetation.

There were also complaints about poor communication between contractors and residents.

The meeting was conducted by Cllr Mark Cunningham, from Church Road, alongside Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, who said she would be taking the issues to the highest possible representatives.

She added: “I will contact the chairman of Network Rail to talk about the problems in Bolton.

“I am going to try to ask a question in Parliament and raise this issue and I am going to be writing to the Transport Secretary as well.”

The meeting was followed by a visit from one of Network Rail’s senior sponsors, Andrew Morgan, yesterday.

He met Cllr Cunningham at the Church Road site before hearing the concerns of residents at Hazlemere.

Lisa Coote, who lives on the Hazlemere estate, said: “The visit went really well because they hadn’t visited before and they hadn’t realised the problems we were having. After today we do feel like we are actually getting somewhere.”

Cllr Cunningham added: “My meeting at the compound went pretty much as I expected it would.

“I was able to brief them on the problems that the residents had been contending with, the solutions I had put forward to the problems and what progress had been made to the point when in August last year Network Rail had ceased responding to phone calls and emails.”

He confirmed that that Mr Morgan had apologised and given assurances that he would come back with proposals and attend a follow-up meeting.

The Network Rail representative had previously apologised to residents, saying the problems “should never have got to this stage”.

He explained that Network Rail have recently been through a change in their principal contractor, with construction giant Amey taking over from Carillion, which went into liquidation in January.

He also promised that subcontractors in the area would be kept in check and a ‘red card’ system put in place to stop problems such as littering, parking and dangerous driving.

However, electrification has not been the only railway problem to affect Boltonians, with many concerned about the increasingly poor service provided by Northern.

In the period between October and December last year, the operator recorded its worst punctuality rating for eight years, with only 83 per cent of trains arriving within ten minutes of their scheduled time.

Mr Grayling said the problems had been caused by a ‘perfect storm’ of factors.

He added: “There have been network problems, it’s quite difficult running a railway company around a massive refurbishment programme.”

North East MP David Crausby has repeatedly questioned Northern and held meetings with the operators over delays.

However, the transport secretary said the Conservatives were making an effort to upgrade the railways, while he accused the opposition of having 13 years in power and doing “nothing” for the network.