A "TOMBOLA of misery" was what greeted stakeholders in the Cumbria Better Connected Campaign as they met on Friday (9) for its latest meeting.

Packed into the Coronation Hall in Ulverston, county and local councillors, economic representatives and community groups met with officials from Northern, Network Rail and the Northern Powerhouse Project to take stock on investment and improvement so desperately needed for the area.

Earlier this month the long-promised upgrades for the Furness, Lakes, and Cumbria Coastal lines were dealt a body blow when Network Rail announced its upgrade programme had become bogged down. Unexpectedly poor ground conditions on the Preston to Manchester Line meant upgrades would not be completed within the expected time frame.

Carew Satchwell, representing Network Rail, said: "It's appropriate to apologise as it has been delayed. Network Rail has not covered itself in glory. The works have been delayed as we found it difficult in the underground conditions. There is no doubt that the pressure is on Northern Rail to get this delivered.

"We have been working to get as many resources on this as we can but in order to do so we have to take more possession on the line."

Mr Satchwell said Network Rail had also been hit by the collapse of contractor Carillion, the multi-billion pound company which was liquidated in mid January.

He continued: "Carillion has collapsed so we have to get another contractor on board. This has been a problem of our own making. For this we apologise."

Barrow MP John Woodcock, who chaired the CBC meeting, lamented the dreary outlook for 2018. Following the meeting he called it a "tombola of misery" on Twitter. However, keen to act on the situation, he raised the possibility of holding further talks with transport minister Jo Johnson as well as raising the issue of delays before the transport select committee in Parliament.

He said: "We will renew pushing Jo Johnson to give us a date for a meeting and we can raise it directly with him in Westminster. With the other Cumbrian MPs I will write to the transport select committee asking them are they planning to look as what is going on with these delays."

A knock-on effect of the problems which have beset Network Rail is a new timetable scheduled to be rolled out by Northern in May 2018 could now be pushed back to December. Company directors Sharon Keith and Craig Harrop said Northern's hands were tied in this situation, and they could not implement the changes badly needed for south Cumbria if the infrastructure it needed was not there.

Mr Harrop said: "Our May 2018 timetable was predicated on the delivery of that infrastructure. You can't deliver that timetable without delivering newer electric trains to that area. We've had to go all the way back to the drawing board to re-evaluate what that timetable will look like.

"We're still carrying out a review that would usually take five to six months to do. We are doing it in two. We have brought in more resources to make sure that work gets done."

Mrs Keith added: "We are scrabbling around with everybody about how we can meet the requirements for our May 2018 timetable. I've not given up hope on the Class 68 trains, even if we can get in temporary equipment for the rolling stock in Cumbria.

"I'm not going down without a fight on this one."

Northern anticipate the review outlined by Mr Harrop to be completed by the first week of March, when it will be made available to the CBC stakeholders.

Following two hours of passioned debate and discourse the meeting was drawn to a close by Mr Woodcock. A provisional date of March 16 has been set for the next CBC group, again meeting in Ulverston, with members of the public encouraged to attend.