Colne-Skipton: Group draws up £298m budget for new line

The Skipton East Lancashire Railway Action Partnership says the time is approaching when it will ask a government department, or the new Transport for the North body, to formally support its call to build a new train line.

It would create fast passenger trains between Pendle, Burnley, Hyndburn and Leeds and new northern freight routes.

Image of trans-Pennine rail network

The old section was closed in 1970.

Today, the Lancashire-side of the line ends at Colne and is only a single line along a considerable stretch, which further restricts capacity for train services.

Now the rail partnership group has drawn-up a £298million budget for a new line, including £80million earmarked for any risks. Campaigners say it is a modest amount compared to massive billion-pound government schemes.

AGM at Colne, March 2023. Skipton East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership

Some more work is needed before its submission but the group believe they are making real progress in building the rail link case and winning support.

The partnership group, also known as SELRAP, held its annual general meeting in Colne this week. It was the first in-person annual meeting since the covid pandemic began.

It is supported by businesses including electricity generator Drax, Peel Ports, which owns various sea ports including the new Liverpool 2 deepwater port and Heysham Port, and the Skipton Building Society.

The campaign has also been discussed at Pendle Council recently with councillors calling for clarity from the government.

Campaigners say the Colne-Skipton link is vital for the whole north of England but especially for east Lancashire. 

Areas such as Pendle, Burnley and Hyndburn are among the UK’s most deprived and economically under-invested, and bad rail links are a key factor, campaigners argue.

In contrast, neighbouring Yorkshire communities in Skipton and the Aire Valley have fast, regular access to Leeds and Bradford and much-better prospects. Aire Valley trains are so successful that longer trains are needed, they said.

They also highlighted long routes taken by some freight trains across the north because of a lack of options across the Pennines.

This included trains from near Skipton being forced miles up the Settle-Carlisle line to near the landmark Ribblehead Viaduct before heading southwards again to get to Leyland in Lancashire.

Freight from ports at Liverpool taken to Carlisle then Newcastle upon Tyne and then Doncaster because of a lack of Pennine crossings.

PASSENGER AND FREIGHT BENEFITS

Furthermore, the group says a reopened Colne-Skipton link would relieve freight train congestion across the north – and Manchester in particular – bringing multiple benefits for northern passengers, business and industry.

Artist's impression of a new station at Earby or Colne

Examples include the movement of cargo containers from northern sea ports such as Liverpool, and on the rivers Humber and Tees, post-Brexit demand for freight services to new freeports and investment zones, and the transport of stone from Pennine quarries.

Reopening the Colne-Skipton link would also complement other railway  developments including new sidings at Leyland in Lancashire, improvements at Diggle in Saddleworth and at Huddersfield.

The north of England has not seen any significant west-east transport investment by national government since the M62 motorway, they argued. But reconnecting Colne and Skipton would create a fourth trans-Pennine rail route which the north badly needs.

EAST LANCASHIRE DEPRIVATION

Speaking at the annual meeting, partnership chairman Peter Bryson, who is from Addingham near Skipton, said: “Colne, Accrington and Burnley, and Bradford, all figure highly in official indexes of multiple deprivation.

"The Colne railway line currently goes through wards that are among the most deprived. The Colne to Skipton scheme is all about levelling-up. Without Colne to Skipton, where else does east Lancashire go? This is essential for their future development. East Lancashire jobs have been lost at businesses such as Rolls Royce. We need good transport links for the future economy.

Peter Bryson of Addingham

“We’re looking for two trains per hour serving east Lancashire stations including a new station at Earby. We also want a one-hourly service travelling further west around Burnley onwards, where other train lines and services also exist.”

He said: “We held our last in-person annual meeting in Colne three years ago, just before the pandemic. At that time, David Cutter, the then chief executive of Skipton Building Society, was on his way to London for a special Bank of England meeting. A week later, we all had the stay-at-home instructions and the pandemic.

“The year 2019 had been dominated by Brexit. Then 2020 and 2021 were difficult with the pandemic. There were also changes with civil servants who we had dealt with. But things have really moved on in recent times.

“We have had some major discussions with Transport for the North and worked on passenger modelling. This is probably some of the best modelling work done for reopened or new railway lines in the north.

“We have also had major discussions with Network Rail and the Department for Transport. A few years ago, some of the estimates were seen as too high. But the good news is that recent work has been adopted by them.

“We also have to thank Northern Rail. We’ve had some very detailed talks about timetable issues and how we can make it the best possible line.”

He said the plans are for fast, direct trains every 30 minutes connecting east Lancashire stations with Skipton, the Aire Valley and Leeds. East Lancashire stations at Colne, Nelson and Hyndburn are seen as key, including new stations at Colne and Earby.

He added: “The cost of living crisis has made east Lancashire even harder-hit. And the Ukraine war has put UK energy security right at the top of the agenda at Whitehall. So having the support of Drax has been a big factor for us.

SUPPORT FROM POLITICIANS AND COUNCILS

The group had met various MPs along the route such as Pendle’s Andrew Stephenson who understood the plans, the meeting heard. Former Hyndburn MP Graham Jones was at the Colne meeting.  Next steps for the group include winning the argument with Westminster government departments and Whitehall civil servants.

The group’s vice-chairman, David Penney, from Colne, said: “We have the backing of the West Yorkshire Metro Mayor Tracey Brabin and the leader of Bradford City Council, Susan Hinchcliffe, who is also a key figure at West Yorkshire Combined Authority.”

David Penney, left. and Peter Bryson

Thanks was expressed to group member Andy Shackleton, of Settle, who suffered a stroke and was ujabkle to attend the Colne meeting. He has been heavily involved in the campaign (a separate report will follow).

Then partnership group member Jane Wood, from Barnoldswick, spoke about media coverage of the Colne-Skipton campaign and how rail and transport issues were now much higher-up the news and political agenda.

She highlighted reports in Lancashire, Yorkshire and national media including Lancs Live, The Nelson Leader, Lancashire Telegraph, Keighley News, Craven Herald, Yorkshire Post, Sunday Times and Daily Mirror about northern rail issues and politics.

The Daily Mirror columnist Paul Routledge lives in Steeton, near Keighley and Skipton, and had written about it. The Local Democracy Reporting Service in Lancashire had written about it, she said.

All political parties at Pendle Council supported SELRAP’s work on the Colne-Skipton case, along with leading councillors at North Yorkshire County Council. Keighley MP Robbie Moore had spoken about it and also the town’s former MP.

Elsewhere along the Lancashire-Yorkshire border, there have been calls for electrification of the railway from Skipton to Morecambe and Lancaster through Bentham, she added.

Separately, Lancaster City Council has an interest in the Bentham line and takes part in meetings of the Leeds-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership. That rail line goes around the northern edge of the Forest of Bowland.

Mrs Wood said politicians and journalists had also compared the huge investment in London’s Crossrail and Elizabeth Line rail and underground schemes compared to fractured activity and U-turns across the north.

Bringing things up to date, she said: “We recently had news about the HS2 high speed rail delays and news that funding for cities is  being cut, which is a backwards step.Therefore it would be very good news if the government made a decision to support our project. It would bring benefits to communities across the north.  We will wait and see.”

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS ‘DOMINANCE’

Peter Bryson highlighted the dominance of Manchester and Leeds in the north. Government funding decisions or policies appeared to reinforce their dominance and investment, with new skyscrapers, student flats and other developments springing up in city centres. Yet other northern cities and towns were overlooked and under-invested.

For example, Bradford, which has two city centre stations, had been earmarked at one point for a major new link to the trans-Pennine network. But the idea was later cancelled.

While Huddersfield and other towns along the Leeds-Huddersfield-Stalybridge-Manchester line will benefit from forthcoming rail and station upgrades. east Lancashire towns and rail infrastructure needed similar investment too, he said.

He said: “Colne is relatively lively but I went to Nelson with a person from the Office of Rail Regulation. They said Nelson was 30 years behind. That is why we want this link.

“In modern times, the M62 motorway has been the only government-backed major trans-Pennine transport scheme across the north. The M62 is now a nightmare.  The Bradford Telegraph & Argus has been highlighting the M62 recently.”

‘QUARRY TRAINS SENT UP SETTLE-CARLISLE LINE TO ACCESS LANCASHIRE’

People in the campaign include Phil Spencer, who has links to Skipton and Ormskirk. He worked on the massive Crossrail project in London. His role there included planning the scheme to get agreements from government and Whitehall  departments.

He said: “Rail industry media covered the situation at Rylstone quarry, near Grassington and Skipton, where material is transported to rail siding at Leyland. The trains have to go to Skipton then up the Settle-Carlisle line to Blea Moor, then turn and go to Hellifield then to Blackburn and then the new sidings at Leyland. It would be much better if the trains could come direct from Rylstone to Leyland via Colne. If we had those 12 miles oif track, the trains could do just that”

Regarding what is called ‘intermodal’ freight from northern sea ports, the meeting heard that some containers from cargo ships are taken on long journeys by train from Liverpool to Carlisle then Newcastle upon Tyne and then Doncaster because of the lack of options across the Pennines.

Mr Bryson said: “In 2019, it was said there was no real demand for this type of traffic from Colne to Skipton. But port traffic has moved in our favour since Brexit.”

‘OUR PLAN FITS GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES’

Group vice-chairman David Penney said: “We are leaving no stone unturned in our campaign. We have our individual members and our work with stakeholders, such as Skipton Building Society. We have politicians backing us from Yorkshire and Lancashire.

“There is no justification for any government to say there is no support for our campaign from other agencies. Our campaign is a good fit with government policies on levelling-up, supporting communities that are left behind and the government’s Union Connectivity Review, which aims to improve transport links, quality of life and economic prospects across the UK.

“Our plan will also support de-carbonisation work to reduce emissions.

“There’s no excuse for government to treat the north so badly. It’s important that people who support our plan tell government they feel badly let-down by the system. We have been working on this for 20 years.”