EAST Lancashire MPs Jack Straw and Andrew Stephenson have joined forces across party lines at Westminster to back a call for the Government to step up action on the £530 million Northern Rail Hub plan.

The Blackburn Labour MP and his Pendle Tory neighbour are among 49 in the Commons to sign a Parliamentary motion urging Ministers to make a full commitment to the blueprint which includes electrifying the Manchester to Preston line.

The Early Day Motion on the Westminster Order Paper says: “We welcome the growth in rail patronage experienced over the last 10 years and recognise that there is now a severe lack of capacity in many areas.

We note that this lack of capacity is particularly critical across the north of England and further note that Network Rail has developed the Northern Hub, a scheme to radically improve capacity across the North and by allowing for an additional 700 trains a day to travel, generating four billion pounds of benefits to the northern economy and delivering 20,000 to 30,000 extra jobs.

“We urge the Government to realise the full benefits of the scheme by committing to the delivery of all its constituent parts in full in the period 2014 to 2019.”