Halifax Labour candidate Holly Lynch has attacked the Conservative’s record on transport in Calderdale after the Conservative Transport Minister promised improvements to local rail services at a campaign stop at Sowerby Bridge Station.

In a video filmed at the station Ms Lynch claims that the Conservatives have failed to deliver on past campaign promises:

“Chris Grayling was here just this week talking about electrification. This Government keep on hiding behind excuses and we know they’re not going to deliver that anytime soon.

“They only show up talking about how important transport is in Halifax when there’s a General Election on.

“I’ve been campaigning on these issues for the last two years and it really bothers me that they only want to talk about it now.”

During a campaign stop video with Conservative Candidate for Halifax, which was posted on the social network Twitter, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

“This is one of the lines that is going to be getting new trains, longer trains, better services as its modernised and then the electrification.”

A local rail expert explained that it was very unlikely that the Conservatives would keep the promise to deliver electrification in the near future:

“The fact is nobody knows when the Calder Valley Line is going to be electrified. The Department for Transport over which Grayling presides is at the moment in the process of backtracking on all sorts of electrification commitments.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if early next year the announcement is that wiring from Huddersfield to Manchester is “too difficult”, and the Calder Valley Line is behind the Huddersfield line in the queue.

“Ten years away might be a reasonable estimate. Since the Northern Electrification Taskforce put the Calder Valley Line at the top of the list of schemes over 2 years ago, the government has done absolutely nothing to suggest it will pursue these schemes.

“The Conservative candidate’s opening on the video is really quite disingenuous.”