MODERN-DAY train journeys across East Lancashire are as slow as they were 50 years ago during the steam age, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph can reveal.

A combination of trains with too few doors -- meaning passengers take longer to get on and off -- and reduced speed limits on aging tracks was today blamed for the problem.

MPs rail activists and green campaigners called on the Government to spend money on East Lancashire's railways to make them a viable alternative to cars.

But the company responsible for maintaining the railways said while it planned to review 40mph speed limits in the area, no decision on whether to improve track had been taken.

Details of our investigation come as railways return to the top of the national news agenda, after thousands of shareholders in the now defunct Railtrack began legal action against the Government to recoup money they lost when the infrastructure company went bust.

Our research through railway timetables from 50 years ago has revealed:

l Average journey from Colne to Blackburn took 39 minutes -- and still does today

l A journey from Blackburn to Clitheroe took 26 minutes, a minute longer than it does today, despite stopping at an extra station

l Journeys between Blackburn and Mill Hill now take up to two minutes longer while a trip between Blackburn and Pleasington takes exactly the same time, eight minutes.

While hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent slashing journey times between Preston and London, commuters in East Lancashire have seen little or no improvement on more local routes.

While it takes just two hours 18 minutes to get to London from Lancashire, it still takes more than an hour to travel 40 miles from Colne to Preston.

Neither of the lines which run through East Lancashire -- the Preston to Colne and Clitheroe to Bolton lines -- are any faster than in 1955.

That is despite 21st century trains being lighter and with fewer carriages, and often making fewer stops than the coal-powered ones running 50 years ago.

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth said: "All the money for new trains is being pumped into services in the south and it means areas like East Lancashire are stuck with the railbus-type trains because they are cheap.

"It isn't acceptable and they aren't suitable. Other areas have the problem, but it's mainly in the north."

Train operator Northern Rail secured the francishe for all services in East Lancashire last year and said it was unlikely there would be new trains.

Richard Barker of Network Rail said: "A speed restriction of 40mph is in place between Blackburn and Clitheroe will remain for the foreseeable future.

"A major renewal project is being carried out on the West Coast Main Line and once that is completed we will review the line speed restrictions between Blackburn and Clitheroe.

"No decision has been taken on what action will be taken."

From December, journeys from Preston to London should take around two hours 35 minutes -- down from the five hour trips in the 1950s.

The current west coast journey time is around three hours from Preston to London.