AFTER years of disruption for rail travellers, news that £1 million is to be spent upgrading Bolton Station is very welcome.

The litany of misery that commuters and railway neighbours have suffered in Bolton over the past five years has been well documented: too-few carriages leading to uncomfortable journeys; electrification work and resulting complications leading to noise and disruption for people living near to the train lines and relentless cancellations for travellers. And that's all apart from the desperately poor service that passengers endured last year after the castastrophic introduction of the new timetable, not to mention the cancellations caused by strikes that look set to continue for a while yet.

So it's fair to say that the travelling public deserve something in the way of compensation to brighten their journeys in and out of Bolton.

And much needed improvements to the railway station will go a little way to achieving that.

The improvements promise to bring back into use disused waiting rooms. And that's another boost for the Bolton Station Community Development Partnership.

They have big plans for Bolton Station. They aim to see it regenerated and to transform it into a community hub where people can enjoy entertainment long after they have disembarked from a train.

All good news for once.