THE long-awaited electrification of Bolton’s rail network will be delayed by a year, it has emerged.

New rail lines in Bolton were due to be switched on in December this year, with the prospect of bigger, better electric trains arriving in the town early in 2017.

But Network Rail said the Bolton electrification will now not be brought in until December, 2017, after “lessons were learned” from other similar schemes.

It means Bolton's fed-up commuters will now have to endure a further 12 months travelling on the current, out-dated, 'cattle truck' carriages.

The rail firm said it wants to allow more time for the installation and testing on newly electrified stretches of railway after analysing its work on the now electrified Manchester to Liverpool line.

Delays have also been caused after Network Rail changed its principal contractor on the scheme part-way through the job.

The news will come as a blow to Bolton’s rail users who have had to put up with severe overcrowding on the network for years as well as major disruption over the past year because of work to expand one of the Farnworth Tunnels.

Bolton North East MP David Crausby, who has regularly campaigned for better train services in Bolton, described the latest setback as “scandalous".

He said: “I am completely fed up with this. Every time we are promised something I say let’s believe it when we see it — but we just don’t know what to believe anymore.

“The constant breaking of promises to the fed-up people of Bolton is just scandalous.

“I know you have to have some pain to get some gain but all we seem to get is pain.

“They say they need to learn lessons but electric trains are not a brand new thing, they have been around for a while so they should know what they are doing.”

The revised timetable comes after publication of a report by Network Rail’s new chairman Sir Peter Hendy, which looked at all of the company’s current schemes of improvement, many of which have seen some significant cost and timescale pressures.

After looking at the progress of the Manchester to Liverpool electrification and other projects across the country, it was concluded that the electrification of the Manchester to Preston via Bolton line would go ahead, but with the revised completion date of December, 2017.

The report said this was to allow the installation of all gantries and cabling and incorporate an extended period for testing and commissioning.

Jeff Davies, chairman of the Bolton Rail Users Group, said he was “very disappointed” with the news.

He said: “I had heard some rumours about this and made some enquiries and actually dug the information out from the 170 page report myself.

“It is very disappointing. I understand they have had problems but they have been in the electrification business for long enough to know about this — the rail users of Bolton are set to lose out again.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “The original delivery date for this scheme was moved from December 2016 to December 2017 after lessons were learned from the Manchester-Liverpool electrification scheme.

“These included the need to allow more time for the installation and testing on newly electrified stretches of railway.

“Delays to the programme were also caused by having to change our contractor. We are now working with Carillion to make sure that this scheme is delivered by the end of 2017 when passengers will be able to enjoy travelling on greener, more reliable electric trains.”

The full Hendy review can be found at www.networkrail.co.uk/hendy-review