THOUSANDS of extra seats are on their way for fed-up commuters, the Bolton News can reveal.

Key operator Northern Rail says passengers are set to benefit from 340,000 extra train seats per year and more than 570 more spaces every morning.

Frustrated commuters, who have had to cope with months of misery because of building work at the Farnworth Tunnels and years of "cattle-truck" conditions on services, will benefit from a major boost to capacity on services from next month.

Northern Rail will launch its new timetable for services on the Bolton network from December 14, which is the same date that trains will once again begin running through the Farnworth Tunnel.

It will mean an increase in the number of carriages on busy morning trains through Bolton from 48 to 55 during the peak times, resulting in an extra 571 seats for passengers between 7 and 10am every day.

This equates to an extra 148,500 additional seats during that peak commuter time across the year and overall Northern said there will be an extra 340,000 seats on Bolton trains each year.

This announcement of extra capacity is something The Bolton News called for when we launched our Let's Get Back on Track campaign in 2013.

The campaign, which was backed by all three borough MPs, called for more trains and better travelling conditions for Bolton's long-suffering passengers and resulted in us handing in a petition of more than a thousand names to the Prime Minister at his Downing Street home.

The news represents a double boost for passengers who have also had to cope with hugely reduced services since major work to enlarge one of the tunnels at Farnworth began back in May.

Last week The Bolton News revealed that a full complement of train services would return to the borough on December 14 , the same date that Northern will launch its extended timetable.

Prior to the Farnworth tunnel work, Northern's morning peak services on the Bolton corridor offered 3,191 seats each day - with that number set to rise to 3,762 from December 14.

Rob Warnes, Northern’s director of planning and programmes said the re-opening of the Farnworth Tunnel on December 14 is crucial to the firm’s plans.

He said: “That is absolutely critical for us as it is the day we launch the new timetable and it means that all of our plans are in place to be able to provide more seats for our customers in the run up to Christmas and beyond.

“We can do this because we are able to put more rolling stock onto the Bolton corridor from lines which are now using electric trains. Because of this we have been able to enlarge 35 of the top 100 most crowded trains on our network.”

He said Northern is pleased to be able to reward Bolton passengers with extra seats and carriages after a lengthy period of disruption.

He said: “Our customers have been extremely patient while the work at Farnworth has been going on and we thank them for that and for their support.”

Bolton North East MP David Crausby has consistently campaigned for Bolton's rail passengers. He said: “I am very pleased to hear that extra carriages are finally on the way. I know that local commuters will be very pleased to finally have a bit of breathing room.

"It’s been a long two years of broken promises but I hope that we will soon see an end to overcrowded, unsafe trains and passengers left on platforms wondering how they’re going to make it to work or to university.

He added: "Today is a big milestone and I’d like to thank the Bolton News and everyone who has engaged with the campaign for helping to keep the pressure on all this time to make this happen."

Mr Crausby said he will 'keep pushing' operators and the Government for more improvements including the reinstatement of a re-routed FirstTranPenine Express service to Scotland, the end of outdated pacer trains on the network and a continued increase in capacity on the borough's trains in the future.

Also welcoming the news was local train campaigner Preva Crossley. He said: "This is excellent news for the rail passengers of Bolton, it will make a really big difference to a lot of people."