MINI trains with airport-style hospitality will come to East Lancashire by 2010 as part of a transport revolution for the new millennium, it was predicted today.

Scores of new stations will be created on existing rail lines for the new trains to call at, linking up with improved bus services throughout the area, as part of a new vision for the future.

And transport consultants Sinclair Knight Merz have told council bosses that their ambitious vision of the future can be delivered and is not pie in the sky.

The company was commissioned to do the research, which was unveiled yesterday, by Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and the East Lancashire Partnership, who will now take advantage of the increase in government spending on public transport, Euro cash and private money to pay for the revolution.

The new mini train services, between Colne and Preston and Clitheroe and Manchester, will share the tracks with existing rail operators, who will continue to run their own services between Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and on to Yorkshire.

And the combination of trains and mini trains will mean an increased number of services, with new tracks being laid to cope with extra traffic between Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton and Burnley, Nelson and Colne.

Freight operators will continue to be able to use the rail lines alongside the mini trains - diesel powered light rail vehicles.

There is also the the possibility of tracks being laid on the streets of East Lancashire beyond 2010, similar to the tram network in Manchester.

Passengers will be offered the chance to buy one ticket covering both bus and rail - even if a person wants to travel from a remote part of the Ribble Valley to, for example, Manchester Airport.

Improved bus services will be introduced to all areas of East Lancashire to link up with the rail network, with special priority for Rossendale and the Ribble Valley, where there are few or no rail lines

Transport chiefs are promising buses will run more often, that there will be bus-only lanes, priority for buses at traffic lights and special bus stops with information services and better access arrangements for disabled people.

Liquid gas-powered buses may also be introduced to reduce exhaust emissions and buses may in future run on former railway lines.

Rail and bus interchanges at Burnley, Blackburn and Accrington will be created so that trains and buses can be timetabled to link up and information systems will be created.

Special arrangements for buses are already being put in place for routes between Blackburn and Accrington, which will come into force in February 2000.

The new rail interchange at Clitheroe will act as a hub for an integrated transport system in the Ribble Valley, with improvements in bus services in the area likely to come on stream during 2000.

County Councillor Richard Toon, chairman of Lancashire County Council's highways and transport committee said: "If we really want to attract people on to public transport, then we have to make it very attractive and use the airline quality approach rather than having people waiting in dirty, squalid, shabby places in the rain for a bus or train.

"This is very radical and we are very enthusiastic about it."

Coun Malcolm Doherty, the leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, added: "There are exciting times ahead. These are not just missions and aims."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.