A CAMPAIGN group aiming to restore a rail link between Colne and Yorkshire has moved a step closer to its dream after getting a train boss on track.

A delegation from SELRAP, the Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership, achieved a coup in meeting Heidi Mottram, the managing director of train company Northern Rail, which runs services across the area.

The train boss wouldn't commit to rebuilding the track connecting East Lancashire and Yorkshire. But she has pledged to help the group protect the threatened Colne branch, which was last year earmarked by Transport Secretary Alastair Darling as a section of rail that could disappear.

SELRAP liaison officer Andy Shackleton said: "It was a very positive and successful meeting. Heidi is very low key but very high-powered and she made it clear from the outset that at this moment in time Northern Rail cannot engage in talking about rebuilding a railway but she was very keen to see that we are interested in developing the current network - namely the Colne branch.

"As a voluntary group we felt privileged to be there. We see the meeting as something of a coup. We are now talking to the MD of the train operating company that provides services at both ends of the stretch, which is a plus. We came away feeling very pleased with ourselves.

"We see an increase in the role for rail and once that's established within the Colne to Preston corridor we see a better future and people seeing that rail is working again."

It was the latest success in SELRAP's campaign to preserve and restore the 11-mile link to Skipton.

The group has already got the backing of Pendle MP Gordon Prentice and MEPs Chris Davies and Diana Wallis as well as favourable reports from Lancashire and North Yorkshire County Councils and the Countryside Agency.

Ms Mottram has been in charge of the company since December 2004.