THE Skipton – East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP) will hold an open meeting later this month.

The public are invited to attend the gathering on Monday January 13 at Earby Community Centre at 7pm.

It will include an update on SELRAP’s campaign to re-open the Skipton to Colne line including a meeting with newly elected MPs.

It will also inform members and others about recent meetings attended by members of the partnership's executive committee.

During last year's General Election campaign both main parties committed themselves to actively pursuing the reopening of the rail link across the Pennines.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry both indicated that the re-instatement of the Colne to Skipton rail link could be paid for from the government’s new £500million Beeching Reversal Fund.

On a visit to Colne station Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald committed a future Labour government to upgrading the East Lancashire railway line from Preston through Blackburn and Burnley and extending it across the Pennines to Skipton.

Mr Shapps said during a visit to the North-West: “The Colne-Skipton reinstatement was one of the examples we gave on the Beeching Reversal Fund.”