TRAIN passengers are standing up for their rights and plan to meet rail bosses to demand improved services.

Passengers on the Blackburn to Bolton line have formed a pressure group and are lobbying First North Western to improve services between Clitheroe and Manchester.

The government watchdog body Ofrat recently gave the franchise group a D rating, on a scale of A to E, due to unreliable services with one in 60 trains cancelled.

Bob Hayes, newly-elected chairman of the Blackburn and Bolton Line Rail Users' Group, said the service had improved since last summer.

He said he believed First North Western was planning to give up its franchise in 2004 and was not planning long-term investments.

He said: "I think it is aiming to minimise losses by maintaining the minimum that's required and no more."

The group is campaigning for better Sunday services, more reliable services and better facilities at Darwen, Entwistle and Hall i' th' Wood stations.

He said: "We want to encourage people to use the services. First North Western is not going to spend a lot of money on services it says are under patronised."

A spokesman for First North Western denied the company was failing to invest or planning to give up the franchise. He said it was aiming to replace all old trains by next May, and increase the number of fleet engineers maintaining them to cut breakdowns.

He added it aimed to renovate all its 300 stations, installing better lighting and information systems and added security by March.

He said the company would consider extra services if research showed a market for them.

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