SELRAP Newsletter Interactive 4pm 20th feb 2026 - Flipbook - Page 20
A COMPELLING CASE
Missing Out
Housing - Growth - Jobs - Education
From:
EAST LANCASHIRE
To:
LEEDS CITY CENTRE
Route:
DIRECT VIA SKIPTON & COLNE
Journey 琀椀me
Burnley and Pendle to Leeds:
LESS THAN ONE HOUR
HIGH PASSENGER NUMBERS
NEW STRATEGIC RAIL ROUTE
ACROSS THE PENNINES
IMPROVED NETWORK RESILIENCE
N+
INVESTMENT REQUIRED ~ £430 MILLIO
NEW SERVICE STARTS ~ DELIVERABLE BY
EARLY 2030’s
Burnley Town Centre
Despite its city-sized popula琀椀on
(260,000), over the past half-century
successive governments have all
neglected East Lancashire.
Front Of The Queue
The Skipton-Colne Line’s compelling
business case makes it the prime
contender to join the growing number of
highly successful rail reopenings around
the UK.
Sadly, none of the recently-announced,
taxpayer-funded schemes will bene昀椀t
struggling former mill towns straddling
the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.
From Cardi昀昀 to Edinburgh and from
Exeter to Newcastle, recently reac琀椀vated
train services have helped revitalise
isolated communi琀椀es, with passenger
use surpassing all expecta琀椀ons (see
pages 16 & 17).
Totally inexplicably, and despite the
county’s escala琀椀ng poverty levels (see
page 19), the government’s Northern
Growth Plan, issued alongside the highpro昀椀le announcement for NPR, ignored
Lancashire.
The Budget (26 November 2025)
gave the green light for two more,
in Newcastle (Leamside) and Bristol
(Por琀椀shead) and a £1.5 billion extension
to London’s Docklands Light Railway.
Crucially, Lancashire’s Local Transport
Plan (October 2025) highlights that over
600,000 people live within two miles of
the Blackpool-Preston-Colne line.
On 15 January 2026, the transport
secretary also con昀椀rmed funding to
complete the £11 billion TransPennine
Rail Upgrade (TRU), and commi琀琀ed £45
billion for Northern Powerhouse Rail
(NPR) into the 2040s, a boost for some
Yorkshire ci琀椀es.
Pennine communi琀椀es far from the
centres of power, such as Colne, Keighley
and West Craven, deserve a decent,
modern, rail service too. Their needs
are arguably greater than those of
metropolitan areas.
Fast and frequent east-to west services
– linking Leeds, Bradford, Preston and
beyond - would be a real game changer,
for them.
All of this is welcome news.
But the North is far more than its big
conurba琀椀ons.
20
