SIR David Crausby will lobby the Department for Transport to build a free car park at Bromley Cross station.

The Bolton North East MP brought up the issue which he has long campaigned for at a meeting with Network Rail on Friday.

In a previous meeting, he was told that funds were not available but the issue was referred to Transport for Greater Manchester.

Last week, he was told that the decision ultimately lies with the Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling.

He said: “I think what we need to do with that is to try and persuade the Department for Transport to deliver a grant.”

The Labour MP believes that a free and large car park at the station is essential to encourage more people to use public transport.

He said that parking facilities at Bromley Cross station are currently inadequate and the area around the station is consistently “blocked up” with cars.

The lack of parking at Bromley Cross causes problems for local residents and causes people to drive to Hall i’th’ Wood or Bolton instead of using the train, according to the MP.

He said: “If you try to make people pay at Bromley Cross station, they would just park somewhere else.

“It’s needed to take some pressure off the streets and people on the train. We want people to park their cars at the railway station if they want to get to the town centre.”

Sir David was also told that electrification of the Bolton railway line will be complete by Christmas with the first electric trains due to be operational by May, 2019.

He was also told that weekend services would resume as usual in two weeks’ time following months of closures on the line.

The MP said that there have been “many broken” promises regarding improvement work on the line which was initially said to be complete by the end of 2015.

However, following last week’s meeting with Network Rail he said that he was more optimistic than ever that the work will be complete on time.