The proposed changes will take effect later this year and will include extending an existing service already linking Hebden Bridge, Brighouse and Leeds to Todmorden. A faster all-day service between Bradford, Halifax, upper Calderdale and Manchester is also to be introduced on the Caldervale line.

The changes have been drawn up by train operator Northern Rail and Metro (the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive). But the downside to the plan is that Walsden will lose some peak hour services.

Todmorden town councillor John Rodgers has written to Northern Rail, following a public meeting held in Mytholmroyd last month, welcoming the development where Todmorden is concerned but also pressing for a better deal for Walsden.

Coun Rodgers said: "There are clearly significant advantages for Todmorden in the proposed changes. Not only will we have the option of faster journey times into both Manchester and Leeds but will have three trains an hour in either direction during the day Mondays to Saturdays, plus as direct service via Brighouse and Dewsbury.

"All these developments are welcome including the suggestion that more train seats will be available to relieve overcrowding. "However. there is a downside for the smaller stations and I am particularly concerned about Walsden."

Coun Rodgers said that in the light of the area being increasingly part of the Manchester commuter belt a frequent and regular service throughout the day would make economic and environmental sense.

Without it, more car traffic would make for Todmorden or Littleborough to park up and then use the train, but station car parks in these towns were full from an early hour.

Coun Rodgers said he felt it would be possible to provide a better service for Walsden without compromising the integrity of the proposals.

He said that aside from the one faster service an hour there were two other services, only one of which was timetabled to stop at Walsden. There was no good reason why the other - via Brighouse and Dewsbury - could not stop there.

"It is essentially a 'stopper' and the timetabling implications of stopping it also at Walsden are negligible," he said.

He has also asked for provision of train services in the evenings to be improved as currently it was not possible to come back from concerts or the theatre from Manchester or, a worse situation, from Leeds without "unseemly rush" and in reality meaning many people who would otherwise use the train making what should be unnecessary car journeys.

He also raised the issue of discrepancy in fares from Manchester to Leeds, asking for the popular special cheap day return from Todmorden to Manchester, which had been withdrawn around a year ago and which put the fares to the respective cities more of a parity to be reinstated.