'Villages in Cheshire have better train services than Farnworth and it's wrong'

"Rural villages in Cheshire have better train services than Farnworth and it's wrong", a councillor has said. The council unveiled its transport strategy on Monday, November 11 with councillors urging for improved rail links to and from Bolton town centre. It comes after Bolton was notably absent from Greater Manchester Combined Authority plans to extend the Metrolink system earlier this year despite announcing proposals for new routes to Middleton, Heywood and eventually Stockport.

The cancellation of the Restoring Your Railway fund in July further halted tram and railway projects in the borough, specifically business cases for a tram from Radcliffe to Bolton and a train to Rawtenstall from Bury. Addressing the council, Cllr Sue Haworth, who represents Harper Green ward, expressed the town’s pressing need for increased transportation funding. She said: “Nobody can underestimate how much of a bedfellow transport is for the economy.

“If you want economic growth, you’ve got to get your transport right. The mayor of Greater Manchester (Andy Burnham) has made public statements that they’re attending to the freight and reduce the freight dependency on the rail. "For us, it’ll be making sure that we get some of that dividend.

“I’ll confess, I just worry that there will be other people trying to get a dividend on that, in East Manchester they have stations they want to be served better. “But I’ve said it myself, there are Cheshire villages with better train servi.