A campaign has been launched calling on transport bosses to bring train services back to a town - 50 years after its last railway station closed.

Leigh is currently the largest town in the North West without an active railway station, but that could soon be about to change if the town's MP gets her way.

Jo Platt, the Labour representative for Leigh, has launched a petition for an old train station to be reopened in a bid to reconnect the town to the national rail network for the first time in decades.

The town's last railway station shut in 1969.

However, the proposed station would not be in Leigh town centre, but almost four miles away in Golborne.

This, says Ms Platt, is because it 'represents the most feasible and practicable first step' due to the tracks still being in place there with trains running past.

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The shadow cabinet office minister also wants to introduce a guided busway connecting the station to the centre of Leigh.

She says reopening the station would help businesses in the town connect to a 'much wider network', help commuters by reducing reliance on the East Lancs Road and the M6, as well as improving the choice of training and education for young people.

She added: “After two years of positive meetings it is time to take the next step and show the transport authorities and ministers who hold the purse strings the strength of feeling we have across the constituency.

“We have been without rail connectivity for 50 years now. That is totally unacceptable.

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"We urgently need and deserve this connectivity to connect residents with the jobs, education and leisure opportunities that will make our community an even greater place to live and work.

“I won’t stop fighting until rail access has been secured because our towns have been held back for too long.

"It’s time we find our voice and demand that our potential is unleashed.”

Launching the campaign, Ms Platt called on transport bosses to put 'immediate plans' in place to reopen the station.

TfGM has confirmed it is currently carrying out a feasibility study looking at transport options in the Leigh/Golborne area, while recent TfN plans floated the possibility of multiple train stations in the town.

The petition to re-open Golborne railway station can be found at www.joplatt.mp.

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