THE possibility of a direct rail service from Burnley to Manchester via the defunct Todmorden curve has once again been raised and would no doubt be of benefit to the area.

A service from Burnley Manchester Road to Manchester Victoria, presumably calling at Todmorden, Littleborough and Rochdale, should take around 50 minutes. It could not be much faster due to current permanent speed restrictions on the heavily engineered line over Copy Pit between Burnley and Todmorden.

This compares with an average 60-80 minutes as taken by the good bus service operated by Burnley and Pendle, the longer time being due to traffic congestion, especially at the Manchester end, and the fact that the service stops frequently at busy times between Rawtenstall and Burnley.

Only experience would tell how well used the proposed train service would be; the service would have to be frequent enough (at least hourly) and fares reasonable in order to compete.

Restoring the Todmorden curve would be costly: in the last 40 years or so a great many trees have grown on the curve and removing them and their roots would be quite a costly business.

I hope that the latest pressure on this matter will now bear fruit, as it opens up many possibilities and will certainly aid regeneration of the area.

DAVID ATKINSON, Riddings Avenue, Worsthorne.