Chris Heaton-Harris, Rail Minister in the UK, has confirmed that investigations into the Colne to Skipton railway line have been commissioned.
The so-called ‘missing link’ will connect East Lancashire and West Yorkshire by reopening the 11-mile line.
In Early May, Chris Heaton-Harris told MP for Hyndburn, Sara Britcliffe that Department for Transport officials had been notified to bring forward specific proposals for work under the develop stage of the project. The project had previously been classified as ‘decision to initiate’.
The DfT will also be looking at enhancements to the current Trans-Pennine routes via Accrington, Burnley Manchester Road and Todmorden. This is in conjunction with proposals for a new rail freight terminal on the site of the old Huncoat Power Station near Accrington.
Credit: Anthony Ward
Chris Heaton-Harris explained that they are ‘establishing if the capital costs can be very substantially reduced and reviewing the passenger demand forecasts and service options’
Sara Britcliffe told the local media ‘I am very excited that the government are moving forward with proposals to reinstate the Skipton – Colne railway’, suggesting this could provide ‘business opportunities across the two counties’.
Credit: Langton Photography
MP for Pendle, Andrew Stephenson, who is Minister for HS2 at DfT, said he was ‘delighted that the proposal had taken a step forward.’
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Responses
Where does this ‘proposal’ now stand with the cancellation of the HS2 extension. Money now going into upgrading the existing network so this is probably a great time to really push for this.
Rail minister says investigations been commissioned. Who conducts the investigation? When
are they due to report? DFT notified to bring specific proposals? How long to establish if capital costs can be reduced? etc etc. If project classified as ‘decision to initiate’, then does this mean
‘get on with it’? Wonder how much time and money spent on reports and investigations. Wish DFT would give an idea as to when all this research and reporting will be completed! Wonder if I can get a job researching!
The whole objective in closing this link line was to make sure that the rest of the line to Blackburn would be subsequently closed and Beeching’s dream of getting people and freight off the railways and on to the roads would be realized. The road lobby wins every time because the gangsters in Parliament are aware that more revenue can be made out of motorists and commercial vehicles than rail traffic.
it would make the colne,skipton railway,if built,a very busy railway as freight trains would use it to cut the corner off to get to Yorkshire,as at moment they go via Hebden brige to Yorkshire,and they would save a furtune in fuel
Has anyone got any photos of railway from Colne to Foulridge especially around Slipper Hill Reservoir. Wondered if there was a crossing gate there Ta
It would be easier to use existing deserted railway line to put a road in to go to Skipton from Boundary Mill roundabout.
There was plans for the M65 to branch off between the Nelson and Colne exits and follow the route of the old railway line to join up with a bypass around Skipton, that led onto Keighley, this was to be a dual carriageway with an exit at Earby/Barnoldswick, but the problem was the best and cheapest route was owned and thus protected by British Railway’s who even back then was toying with the idea of reopening it.
Other plans had the motorway extending south of Colne and on over the moors to Keighley, this route although shorter would have been steeply graded and dangerous in the winter mouths, as well as costing more to build than the longer route
There was a large bridge at Foulridge across the canal too
Yorkshire Lad, you seem very grumpy about the whole thing. Your community must be the odd one out because most of the others seem pretty keen! Villages will not be ‘cut off’ they will have a realigned access road(s) where necessary. I work for a utility company and liaise with Network Rail, I’m not sure where you get the figure of 4000 compensation packages. Most cases are fairly minor, and some relate to locations where people have ‘mistakenly’ encroached on to land that isn’t theirs…I accept that some people will be more adversely impacted than others though. Several large-ish new bridges will be required. Also some of the farm crossings will require new bridges, or the depth of the road dropping to ensure suitable clearance for modern machinery. As railway reopenings go it is entirely do-able and I believe the line would be of local and strategic benefit.
I really hope this does happen. I wasn’t living around here when the line was originally in operation. I would use the service on a regular basis should it return though.
If it does get the approval then it should be given the go ahead.
What if any plans are there for stations along the route?
Hooray
It is all very well saying that British Rail closed Colne to Skipton due to lack of custom, this could have been due to a poor timetable, which many services had, and the fact that I can remember 50 years ago there were not as many people travelling, it is the last 25 years or so that the population has increased, and people seem to want to be mobile. Yes a lot of mistakes made 50 or so years ago, there were other lines that closed which were not in the Beeching report.
I have passed the route many times by road.It would an excellent idea to reopen it.Any vehicle reduction on the roads is positive.Good luck to the people trying to reinstate the line.
Bring it on. As has already being pointed out this line wasn’t a Beeching casualty this was down to Barbara Castle who was then Secretary of State for Transport.
Barbara Castle was replaced by Richard Marsh (who later became chairman of British Rail) as Minister of Transport on 6 April 1968 & he in turn was replaced on 6 October 1969 Fred Mulley so it likely that Fred Mulley was the one who agreed to the closure – it was certainly closed during his tenure at MoT.
Stand corrected. Thanks John.
The news of projects to reopen lines needs to be a regular event, not some sort of special fanfare. For example locally between Market Harborough and Northampton, but the same for electrification. It’s all very well talking about opening a new DB Cargo depot in North London taking 60 odd lorries off the road, but it’s still a diesel locomotive moving the trains around.
This would be a valuable link in today’s society. It’s a great shame that the Ilkley to Skipton line was closed, too. The development of places like Addingham could have led to traffic into Leeds, Bradford, Skipton and beyond.
Furthermore… Even when (or how long, or goodness knows how many years it’ll take to ever achieve so, for this Northerly Railway line to be rebuilt/resurrected) I’d look forward to riding aboard a passenger train to travel along what was closed in 1970,
Especially to travel through the exact part of the Yorkshire/Lancashire border that hadn’t even seen a single train pass by along this stretch of railway in exactly 50 years/half-a-century ago.
Also, It’ll help ease congestion and freshly improve the local economy out there in anyways possible.
I do believe there ‘s more than an obstacle after another for work overcome when it comes to rebuilding this North Yorkshire/East Lancashire border railway line, exactly along the same alignment as when this abandoned country line was first built.
No, the abandoned route has been pretty much left untouched even the A56 at Colne could be crossed via a level crossing, although really the A56 should go over the line on a bridge, which there is room to do.
At the Skipton end it would only then have to deviate from its original alignment b 20-30 meters north due to the Skipton bypass, after a new bridge is installed over the River Aire, just have a look on google earth
Not quite as easy as you are all making out. I live next to the line and sit on one of the parish council’s affected. We have been told that no level crossings will be allowed therefore new road will be required to circumnavigate Earby, which will be effective cut off, and new roads to be parts of Thornton-In-Craven which would also be cut off. There would need to be a new bridge at Colne over the dual carriageway. In addition many of the bridges along the route over farm tracks have been removed as the modern machinery can’t fit underneath on the current road as so the roads and farm tracks need to be either altered or relocated. There would need to be about 4,000 compensation packages put together for the affected residents and business who would loose land or houses. Nobody around here wants it back as there is only one station going in and you’d have to drive to that so why bother when you can drive a few minutes further to get to either Skipton or Colne anyway. Mostly seems to be those who don’t live here who want it back.
Network Rail still fully own the track bed and there is only one small industrial building on the current route so no other business would loose land, there is also no need for any to be demolished, a few greed residents will loose some of there extended gardens that have encroached on to the railway route land.
The talk of 4,000 compensation packages put together for the affected residents and business who would loose land or houses seems at odds to the actual facts.
Any farm underbridge all the route would be rebuilt as the integrity of these existing underbridges would be unknown and thus safer if rebuilt to accept modern larger tractors.
Level crossing have been allowed on other reopened routes as these are not high speed lines, Salterforth Road would be extended to allow access to the station that would be rebuilt slightly north of its original position, this could easily be extended ontowards the Earby Recreation Ground and then connect with the A56 via the existing underbridge.
The A56 could be re-routed east of its present route via the allotments and cross the new line near West Craven Drive, the A56 at the Colne end was originally planned to have an over bridge over the railway line, but as no plans then where made for it’s reopening these plans was changed.
Your comments on this are very much those of a NIMBY and you are taking this route in insolation saying that you can travel easily to Colne or Skipton, which is your choice, but railway lines do no exist in isolation they have to connect to other lines, so this reopening back to how it should have been left in the first place is about increasing the connects, the route availability, the resilience, you need to look at the much bigger picture.
Well I Have to Admit, This’ll be quite exciting… When it comes to reopening this long closed stretch of railway line within the Foreseeable Future.
I Always Knew talks of reopening this line (which I believe was regrettably closed down/abandoned exactly 50 years ago by non-other than British Rail).
Looking back, yet judging from what BR did even then, I think it were a huge mistake cutting of/stripping this part of the Yorkshire/Lancashire border of it’s own part of the Northern Rail Network.
So if this all goes ahead, I like to Wish all this Good Luck and let’s hope it’ll put the local villages within-between the two Northern Towns of Colne, Lancashire and Skipton, North Yorkshire firmly back on the map.
The Colne to Skipton Track Section was never included in the Beeching cuts program, and was shut down to low traffic numbers and short sightedness of British Rail at the time.
If it had never closed the ridership would have gone up following similar trends in the area, and it would have been highly likely that the current electrification would have been extended onto the missing section and hence onto the East Lancs line to Preston, as the majority of trains would not terminate at Skipton like they do now and would travel on into lancashire.
The actual route and track bed have not been altered or built over, expect for one small building (some gardens in Earby will be made smaller), with the majority of Civil Engineering works in place and suitable for reuse.
The only costly major Civil Engineering works on the route are at Colne where the line will have to cross a busy A56 road, which will require a bridge, near the junction with line at Skipton a river crossing over the River Aire and a small local road needs to be made then it will need to deviate slightly north to enable the line to make a connection with line going into Skipton prior to the A629 Road.
Ideally the 11 mile section should be brought back to it’s original state and be double tracked to allow full unitization, this will also mean that the 6 miles of single track between Colne and Burnley will need to be brought back to double line track.
Unless the whole Skipton to Preston line is electrified then British Rail Class 769 DEMU (already in Northern Rail’s ownership) would have to be used to allow the running of Bradford to Blackpool trains for example.
What about where the track crosses salterforth rd in Earby at the bottom of the ranch, and where it crosses the main A56 just going out of Earby…and also by Thornton cricket club…regards Robert
Salterforth Rd, was at the end of Earby Station and was served with a level crossing, the same happened at the eastern end of Earby on the A56, one would assume that they will be reinstated, there will also be need for one on West Craven Drive.
The other option is for some of these roads to be diverted and/or bridges built over the railway line.
As Earby will probably have stopping trains at its new station the use of Level crossings would not cause to many problems.