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North West rail services to be improved

The government announced that existing rail services will be maintained and more seats will be offered in the north of England as part of a plan to secure rolling stock.

Over the coming months, the agreement will deliver a number of benefits to passengers.

This includes more carriages between Manchester and Blackpool increasing capacity and number of seats.

Longer trains will provide extra capacity to Carlisle, Maryport, Workington, Whitehaven, Sellafield and Barrow-in-Furness, with potential to create additional jobs.

There will also be an enhanced early-morning service from Carlisle to Sellafield, arriving in time for the morning shift at the power station.

Electric trains on Manchester Victoria to Liverpool and Liverpool to Preston routes

There will be revised services for South Cumbria and Windermere and on the South TransPennine route.

Services between Manchester, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Yorkshire Coast, Humberside and the Northeast will have additional carriages.

Managing director for First TransPennine Express (FTPE), Nick Donovan, said: “A great deal of background work has been undertaken by ourselves, Northern Rail and the Department for Transport that seeks to ensure capacity and frequency of FTPE services across our network is maintained for the timetable change in May 2015.

“I am delighted that we have been able to work together and develop a plan that aims to protect rail services for the huge majority of customers in the north of England and, indeed, deliver some additional capacity at a time when demand across our network is higher than ever.

Managing director, Northern Rail Alex Hynes, said: “Rail travel is increasingly popular in the north of England placing capacity at a premium.

“That is why we have been working with First TransPennine Express and the Department for Transport to ensure customers would not be disadvantaged by the loss of some FTPE trains.

“In doing so we are delighted to be able to provide more seats for customers on some of our busiest routes.

“Through deploying more electric trains to take advantage of newly electrified routes, we are able to help maintain capacity for FTPE and add more seats for customers in Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .