Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has a message for the people of Bolton — “you are going to get a better rail service in your town.”

Mr McLoughlin was in the borough to visit the huge engineering project currently taking place at the Farnworth Tunnels site, which is preparing the route for the arrival of electric trains.

Network Rail is currently boring out one of the two tunnels at the site using a huge piece of equipment, which will allow electrified trains to run through it in both directions.

The machine is working on schedule — having bored out 10 metres of the 270-metre tunnel so far and is scheduled to have trains running through it on October 5.

The Transport Secretary accepted that the major project will have caused disruption for passengers — with services severely reduced between Bolton and Manchester since work started in May — but said it will be worth it for the results.

He said: “You can’t upgrade any rail infrastructure without causing a disruption — what I can say is that when this is completed, we will get a better service, a more resilient service and a brand new tunnel that takes two trains through it rather than one as currently happens.

“So a better service is going to come, I appreciate that some people will complain about the time it takes, but these projects are big — anyone who has been on site and seen what is happening why that is.

“At the end of the day we are going to get a better rail service, which will be to the benefit of people in Bolton.”

In June, Mr McLoughlin was forced to announce that another aspect of the government’s “Northern Powerhouse” plan had gone off-course, with electrification work on the Trans-Pennine route between Leeds and Manchester “paused" indefinitely. 

He said that electrification work in Bolton would not suffer a similar fate, adding: “It is not being paused, it is actually happening here and it is not that far from completion.

“The Northern Hub is a billion pounds investment in lifting and upgrading both the rail network and also some of the rolling stock too, getting rid of pacers and better connections between the major towns and cities in the North West — it is very important.”

Nick Spall, route delivery director at Network Rail said: “We are still on track, there are always a few teething problems with these things because it is a really complex piece of kit costing nearly £2.5 million.”

He added that staff have been delighted by the reaction of local people to the project, adding: “They have been brilliant, we know the work we do can be quite invasive but people have seemed more excited about the fact a piece of historic engineering work is taking place here.”