CAMPAIGNERS fighting for improvements to boost the area’s rail connections with Manchester city centre will have to wait more than a year for a half-hourly service, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

Work was completed on £14 million improvements to the Clitheroe to Manchester line, also serving Blackburn and Darwen, last month.

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According to tendering documents for the new Northern Rail franchise, bids to run the service must be placed by December 2017.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council is pushing for half-hourly trains to be running along the new double-tracked line by December 2016, council leader Mohammed Khan said.

Currently there is only one off-peak train per hour running from the Ribble Valley, through Blackburn with Darwen, to the city.

Cllr Mike Lee, Conservative group leader on Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “It is a disaster for East Lancashire if we cannot get access to Manchester.

“We have worked for years to try and get government funding for this work to be carried out, so we could double-track part of the line, and I’ll certainly be asking questions as to why now there is this wait.”

Peter Brass, Clitheroe newsagent and a founder member of Ribble Valley Rail, said: “If the work has been carried out then why isn’t the line going to be available this December?

“Whoever signed the contract at Blackburn with Darwen Council needs to explain themselves.”

Announcing the line’s reopening, Brian Bailey, Northern Rail’s growth director, said : “The next challenge is to ensure the government supports our campaign to introduce the additional trains on the line as soon as possible within the next northern franchise, which is to be let in April 2016.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “ We have asked bidders to put forward proposals for half-hourly services on the Darwen loop by December 2017 at the latest to coincide with a host of other improvements.

“Bringing this date forward would be a matter for the local authorities and the operator.”