Find the cash for rail revamp

9:34am Saturday 15th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

THE decision of the Department of Transport not to come up with the £8m needed to bring railway services between East Lancashire and Manchester into the 21st century is a huge let-down for the area.

Quite why the government has taken such a disappointing view is difficult to fathom.

Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Mike Damms says it shows a "complete lack of joined-up policy" while Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Colin Rigby believes it reflects a southern-centric attitude and that the money would have been found if the scheme was for somewhere like Oxfordshire.

Jack Straw says he is arranging an urgent meeting with the railways minister and will not give up fighting.

And so he should because In the words of the council's chief executive Graham Burgess its cost is "a tiny amount of money" in government terms.

From Darwen to Clitheroe more and more people are commuting to Manchester to work and an effective rail link is essential, not just for them, but also to help ease the enormous road traffic pressures facing that city.

For many, many reasons money must be allocated to enable East Lancashire's rail link with the Manchester conurbation to become reliable and efficient.