RAIL commuters face further misery after Northern announced delays in service enhancement following yesterday's timetable change.

Around 2,200 new services a week were expected to be delivered by the train operator across the north of England following this month's timetable change but 900 of these new services will not be running until December 2018.

Passengers who currently travel on the line from Colne to Blackpool, which passes through Accrington, Burnley and Blackburn, will not be able to get to the summer holiday destination directly for the next seven months.

The reductions come because Northern are unable to run electric trains along the Bolton corridor until electrification is complete. The private company are now having to relocate diesel trains from elsewhere to continue to run these services, rather than be able to enhance them elsewhere.

Northern managing director David Brown said: "Our plans for modernisation are not all being delivered in the way we want.

"This is hugely frustrating for everyone that works at Northern and I know that this is causing some customers significant disruption and inconvenience and I’d like to apologise for this."