MP presses George Osborne for Colne-Skipton rail link (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What a waste of time and money.
The line will never open again.

If it takes as long as the M65 study thats been on and off since the 70s This as no chance they live in cuckoo land. Pendle's MP would be better off getting jobs into pendle its just a Publicity exercise

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS FOR A STUDY OF THE BLEEDIN OBVIOUS !!

I'll do it for 50 quid and my recommendations will save the taxpayer millions.

Maybe there are potential benefits, I just can't think of any significant ones. Happy to be corrected!

I'd have thought a better link along the trans-pennine route would be more beneficial. Burnley direct to Leeds. Seems silly to go Colne to Skipton to Leeds.

as you are an off-****-den mr stephenson let me save you some money and face.where will the train run once it gets to kelbrook and earby with industrial estates in the way.infact where is the line going from colne.?it will have to be green belt land.this project will be the biggest laugh since only fools and horses was on the box

coates warder wrote:
as you are an off-****-den mr stephenson let me save you some money and face.where will the train run once it gets to kelbrook and earby with industrial estates in the way.infact where is the line going from colne.?it will have to be green belt land.this project will be the biggest laugh since only fools and horses was on the box

Presumably it would follow the protected line. Anything that has been built on the protected line would need to be removed.

We live in a country where it has been widely acknowledged that good transport links are vital to an areas economic and social prosperity. The current line to Colne is of poor quality by modern standards and offers few options or incentives for people to make use of it. With all the recent ongoing investment in the North West's rail and light rail infrastructure, it is not at all unreasonable for this small but crucial link to be reinstated. By all accounts the old trackbed would not need any overtly expensive work to get it back into operational condition and the level of encroachment is at best minimal. The trackbed is in the main protected from future development and none of the bridge or permanent way infrastructure would be too difficult with modern engineering advancements. All that is required is the will to make it happen and as all these other projects have proven, the money can be made available. Maybe the local people could push for it to be a requirement of the next rail franchise which I believe is due to be renewed in 2014? Apart from the people who live directly next to where the line would be, I can't see any reasonable objection for not breathing new life into this railway.
I wish SELRAP well in their longstanding efforts to boost the areas outlook and hope that the residents of Pendle and surrounding areas do all they can to give the campaign a boost. Let's get this railway built instead of allowing the engineering price tag to get higher and higher and erode the case for what is in my view common sense.

coates warder wrote:
as you are an off-****-den mr stephenson let me save you some money and face.where will the train run once it gets to kelbrook and earby with industrial estates in the way.infact where is the line going from colne.?it will have to be green belt land.this project will be the biggest laugh since only fools and horses was on the box

The Line has been protected for many years now as a transport link, and no major Industrial Estate sites on it by the way, you you have to do is look on Google Earth to see that, and their has already been lots of studies done with regards to this project, which includes once from well known large developers, no names here though, that wish to fund part of the project, only if the Government or LCC, Nth Yorkshire CC backs it 100%, this can't be done until the GRIP 3 STUDY is compleated, which is what Andrew Stephenson is talking about.

This project will get of the ground, it has more than 196 MP's backing it, and many businesses and schools, Colleges, University's, SELRAP the campaign group for this project has over 2000 members in support of it, and, as well as many others including some really well known support, from Joanna Lumley to Nick Cleg, and Network Rail Support the project to.

Now MR Coates Warder, Get of your High Horse, and stop being so self centered, you really don't want the Young people of East Lancashire to benefit from this, and be able to get work, or study were they want, you don't want the older people to have better links to the Yorkshire Dales, you don't want investment comming in to East Lancashire, you really want everyone to live in Poverty, you want business to continue to loos business.

Well "God Save All Of You" If he has any say on you lives.

Lancylad wrote:
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS FOR A STUDY OF THE BLEEDIN OBVIOUS !! I'll do it for 50 quid and my recommendations will save the taxpayer millions.

Report = Commercially not viable, will encourage people to travel away from Pendle towns not into them. Rail link already barely profit making. No action recommended.

Invoice £2.50

JayEss wrote:
Maybe there are potential benefits, I just can't think of any significant ones. Happy to be corrected! I'd have thought a better link along the trans-pennine route would be more beneficial. Burnley direct to Leeds. Seems silly to go Colne to Skipton to Leeds.

Bus route makes sense, road network exists, no cost for resurecting rail link. Benefit of it would be a quicker escape from the Dead Towns of Nelson and Brierfield i suppose.

sim1846 wrote:

coates warder wrote:
as you are an off-****-den mr stephenson let me save you some money and face.where will the train run once it gets to kelbrook and earby with industrial estates in the way.infact where is the line going from colne.?it will have to be green belt land.this project will be the biggest laugh since only fools and horses was on the box

The Line has been protected for many years now as a transport link, and no major Industrial Estate sites on it by the way, you you have to do is look on Google Earth to see that, and their has already been lots of studies done with regards to this project, which includes once from well known large developers, no names here though, that wish to fund part of the project, only if the Government or LCC, Nth Yorkshire CC backs it 100%, this can't be done until the GRIP 3 STUDY is compleated, which is what Andrew Stephenson is talking about.

This project will get of the ground, it has more than 196 MP's backing it, and many businesses and schools, Colleges, University's, SELRAP the campaign group for this project has over 2000 members in support of it, and, as well as many others including some really well known support, from Joanna Lumley to Nick Cleg, and Network Rail Support the project to.

Now MR Coates Warder, Get of your High Horse, and stop being so self centered, you really don't want the Young people of East Lancashire to benefit from this, and be able to get work, or study were they want, you don't want the older people to have better links to the Yorkshire Dales, you don't want investment comming in to East Lancashire, you really want everyone to live in Poverty, you want business to continue to loos business.

Well "God Save All Of You" If he has any say on you lives.

so i take it you have walked the proposed route have you there is a indusrial estate in the way in earby it will cut northolme off from earby and for it to cross the river aire at carleton where it floods badly and the lane into carleton that it will have to cross is also sinking its will have to be a very big bridge.it will also have to cut across the A56 the otherside of earby.but hey im all ears please explain what benifits it will bring apart from a link from colne to skipton.have you seen the high train fairs that go up by a average of 8% every year.not cheap to use.cheaper by bus where there is plenty of connecting to two towns.tell me how it will bring people out of poverty.and what has it got to do with joanna lumley.and nick clegg.network rail will back it as the goverment will pay for it not them.and what does loos mean.

1, Train fare, its not 8% by the way it would only be 6% and thats on the westcoast main line, our line would be more like 4%.

If you take a look at the SELRAP website, you will find all the possative benefit information you need, with all the reports available to download, in fact the cost benefit ration stands far higher than any road project, and it's a lot cheaper, given the fact that 45% of the population of driving age don't have a car, is one reason this is so badly needed, and the rail link isn't just for the people of East Lancashire, it's for those that live on the other side of the border to, right up to Shipley in West Yorkshire, which would give them a fast link to Manchester, Preston, and Liverpool.

And by the way the rail line near the flood plane doesn't flood, it up higher, and if this was an issue in the first place the railway wouldn't of been built on it.

Bus, takes to long, people live in a fast passed environment now, they need to get to places quick, and it would only take 55 min to Leeds on the train. The bus from Colne to Skipton you have to add about 43 min, from Nelson 55 min, and from Burnley 70 Min.

And by the way, intresting that you say that having this railway back would make people leave the town for work, shopping etc, you are right in what you say their, but you would also have more people comming in to town, for work, shopping education, and tourism, this railway would bring investement in to East Lancashire, not taking it out.

Now what many people seem to forget is that far more jobs have been lost in this region due to the fact that the railway was cut of at Colne, and the line from Nelson to Burnley was singled, now even I remember Nelson Center being really busy as a very young kid, when we had a double track railway up to Nelson, with trains evey 30min, and the trains brought in lots of people in to the town.

Now what did the M65 bring in, Nothing, no new investment, in fact business was moving out as well as people, it is a well known fact that roads do the opposite, in fact both Nelson and Colne have a far smaller population than in 1960 which was over 26,000, now its just over 20,000.

As I said before look on the SELRAP WEBSITE for more info.

sim1846 wrote:
1, Train fare, its not 8% by the way it would only be 6% and thats on the westcoast main line, our line would be more like 4%.

If you take a look at the SELRAP website, you will find all the possative benefit information you need, with all the reports available to download, in fact the cost benefit ration stands far higher than any road project, and it's a lot cheaper, given the fact that 45% of the population of driving age don't have a car, is one reason this is so badly needed, and the rail link isn't just for the people of East Lancashire, it's for those that live on the other side of the border to, right up to Shipley in West Yorkshire, which would give them a fast link to Manchester, Preston, and Liverpool.

And by the way the rail line near the flood plane doesn't flood, it up higher, and if this was an issue in the first place the railway wouldn't of been built on it.

Bus, takes to long, people live in a fast passed environment now, they need to get to places quick, and it would only take 55 min to Leeds on the train. The bus from Colne to Skipton you have to add about 43 min, from Nelson 55 min, and from Burnley 70 Min.

And by the way, intresting that you say that having this railway back would make people leave the town for work, shopping etc, you are right in what you say their, but you would also have more people comming in to town, for work, shopping education, and tourism, this railway would bring investement in to East Lancashire, not taking it out.

Now what many people seem to forget is that far more jobs have been lost in this region due to the fact that the railway was cut of at Colne, and the line from Nelson to Burnley was singled, now even I remember Nelson Center being really busy as a very young kid, when we had a double track railway up to Nelson, with trains evey 30min, and the trains brought in lots of people in to the town.

Now what did the M65 bring in, Nothing, no new investment, in fact business was moving out as well as people, it is a well known fact that roads do the opposite, in fact both Nelson and Colne have a far smaller population than in 1960 which was over 26,000, now its just over 20,000.

As I said before look on the SELRAP WEBSITE for more info.

I would have thought that anyone living in Shipley wishing to travel by train to Manchester, Preston or Liverpool would be best advised to travel to Leeds and then change trains. The journey time from Shipley to Leeds is 15 minutes and at Leeds one is able to connect with semi-fast services to key centres in the North West.

It would be exceedingly difficult to demonstrate conclusively the claim that ‘more jobs have been lost in this region due to the fact that the railway was cut of at Colne, and the line from Nelson to Burnley was singled’. Similarly, the assertion that ‘ what did the M65 bring in, Nothing, no new investment, in fact business was moving out as well as people, it is a well known fact that roads do the opposite’. I have to say that this is news to me. The implication here is that rail is the only transport mode that results in inward investment. If you don’t mind my saying so this is a strange proposition and one that is not borne out by evidence.

For much of the twentieth century freight traffic was moving away from rail to road on account of price advantage, direct control of the movement, door-to-door access, widespread adoption of separate motive units and trailers, and containerisation. Local passenger traffic was lost first to the tram, then the bus; longer distance traffic was lost to the coach and latterly both were lost to the car.

Certainly businesses may have been moving away from the area but this was most likely to be due to technological innovation and imported goods replacing domestically produced goods. When one looks at the history of motorway and dual-carriageways one invariably sees business parks developing adjacent to them. The Euroway Trading Estate next to the M606, the Airedale Park at the end of the Aire Valley Road at Crosshills, Network 65 Business Park at junction 9 of the M65 and, of course, our own Lomeshaye Business Park adjacent to the M65 near Nelson suggest to me that improved road infrastructure aids industrial development.

I would be very interested in the reasons for the declining populations of Nelson and Colne over this period. I suspect that there are a variety of explanations not least of which could have been urban slum clearance and the population moving outwards into the periphery.

I hope you don’t mind my saying but your argument seems to be that all the bad things that occurred over the last forty years is down to the withdrawal of train services between Colne and Skipton, and restoring the link will catapult the area into a golden era. While some of our underlying problems may be helped by restoring the ‘missing link’ I fear that the benefits are being somewhat exaggerated.

Shipley to Preston fast link thats a laugh. I can walk faster to Preston than the train we went the other week to Blackpool it took 2 hrs most of that to get to Preston at a snails pace. And secondly who would be able to afford the fair now never mind by the time that if ever is up and running it costs now 2 adults and 2 children Skipton to Leeds about £29 return plus you would have to add the extra from Colne and from home not a cheap way to travel

Having read Kevin's comments he does have some good points. It is also the case that it is very difficult to give evidence based data for something that hasn't been built yet. At best reports and surveys can only take an educated guess on what predictions are likely to occur. However, one certain fact is that rail as a mode of travel is currently experiencing a renaissance and this does have a positive impact on the areas that are served. The missing link is not just about restoring a railway, it is about improving the quality of it as well and dragging it out of decline by making it fit for purpose. The only question that needs answering is why should Pendle and the surrounding areas be denied a modern railway and all the good that will bring to the area? I really can't see what harm it will do to create these extra journey opportunities and to hopefully have a positive effect on the areas house prices and job prospects.

Selraps next projec?- re-open the link from Rosegrove to Padiham Power Station?