Thank you, TBTC, for you kind comments regarding SELRAP'S "punching well above it's weight" with our campaign to reopen the Skipton-Colne railway, but then you claim we have a "thin case". If that were so, why do we have continuing, in-depth, contact with DfT, NR, TfN and all local MPs on the route (and beyond)
I mean it - given how thin the business case is, the fact that you're getting it talked about so much shows how well you are at promotion
However we've had threads on the SELRAP proposals for as long as I can remember suggests that these ongoing discussions haven't resulted in many shovels in the ground - despite all of the attention that politicians want to give to "Beeching" re-openings - every time it gets discussed we seem to have someone suggesting it's almost ready, just another few weeks, nearly...
It must be remembered that our case isn't just about reopening a local link, it is about regenerating a very deprived area, thanks to years of neglect and non-investment. Those 12 miles of missing track will link communities with the three lowest house prices in the entire country (Pendle, Hyndburn and Burnley) with North and West Yorkshire with all the job, educational and tourism benefits that brings. Keighley and Bradford are major sources of education which will benefit the ever-growing younger population of East Lancashire
So you could link Pendle (i.e Colne), Hyndburn (i.e. Accrington) and Burnley (self explanatory!) to West Yorkshire?
You're doing that disingenuous thing of pretending that a train via Skipton would be the only way of linking East Lancashire with West Yorkshire, hoping that people don't realise that
there's been an hourly service from Blackburn/ Accrington/ Burnley to Halifax/ Bradford/ Leeds for decades - we don't need to spend half a billion pounds to link Burnley (etc) with Bradford and Leeds, there's a train every hour - it's good, I've used it, try it!
We could even turn it into a half hourly service by extending the current (Hull) Leeds - Halifax service through to East Lancashire, for the sake of an extra Sprinter or two - no need to break the bank
But the whole case for SELRAP requires people to believe that it's the only way to link the quarter of a million people in East Lancashire to the jobs etc of West Yorkshire, assuming that people aren't aware that such trains already exist (and that we'd be spending all of this money on linking just the Colne area with West Yorkshire rather than the whole of East Lancashire with West Yorkshire)
Why bring up Hyndburn and Burnley in terms of places that could get a link to West Yorkshire, when they already have one and a service via Skipton is going to be a lot slower (as well any train running via Skipton obviously only being able to serve Bradford *or* Leeds, rather than both, which the current services via Halifax do)?
Have the house prices in Burnley/ Hyndburn increased since the hourly service via Todmorden to Manchester btw?
The Pendle region has one of the lowest car ownerships in the country. If young people are to find education and jobs, then they will have no option but to drive - which must be avoided if we are to fulfil our decarbonising commitment and encourage travel by rail
There's a contradiction here, because the suggestion is that "improved trains will get people out of their cars, thus helping the environment" but also "the people in East Lancashire don't own many cars" (so there's not going to be much "decarbonising" if they aren't doing much driving at the moment)
The terminus at Colne is one of the worst performing stations in region. To re-link it with one of the best performing in the region (Skipton), has to make sense, feeding new blood into a withered arm
If you're saying that very few people use a station at Colne (and I agree, very few do) then I don't think that they are going to use services towards Burnley just because the train started in West Yorkshire rather than commencing at Colne
Frankly, it disappoints and bewilders us why so-called rail enthusiasts should be so negative about a comparatively simple reopening which would have major benefits for employment, housing, education and tourism
There's an assumption that some people have that we should all be Happy Clappers and get behind
every proposal that someone suggests
People sometimes get upset that enthusiasts aren't automatically "enthusiastic" about everything
But if you can't convince people who are predisposed to liking railways that your idea is worth spending so much money on then you're going to struggle to get Government to spend the money you want
if there's so much demand for rail travel from Mid / East Lancs to Skipton / Leeds, why isn't there a push to run from Clitheroe to Skipton which can be done on existing lines albeit needing a reversal at Settle ?
This is the question that nobody seems to want to answer!
If Skipton to East Lancashire is such a big market then we could run services fairly easily with just a big of signalling at Hellifield and a spare DMU, but where's the fun in that compared to getting the crayons out, eh?
The Skipton-Colne line closed in 1970. At that time, many lines "struggled to wash their faces". Times have changed. No-one in 1970 would have dreamt that the Airedale line and Settle-Carlisle would be so successful
Is Settle & Carlisle really "so successful"?
It's a long double track bit of line that only has a Sprinter every couple of hours, nothing north of Carlisle and nothing south of Leeds (other than one train on Sunday mornings, pre-Covid) - is that really a huge success?
(I've suggested before that, if BR had managed to close the S&C when they wanted to in the 1980s, people would be suggesting today that it'd sustain a frequent pattern of long distance services, rather than the fairly modest frequency it currently has!)
Colne is a poor performer because it carries so few passengers due to its poor frequency, service speed and connectivity westward
An extension to Skipton wouldn't help the frequency/ service speed/ connectivity eastwards, and those are things that would be a lot easier to solve - but you don't seem so interested in solving those kind of simpler/ cheaper problems - we'd spend half a billion pounds on a swanky route from Skipton to Colne and then be dealing with the poor infrastructure that you're referring to...
...unless the hope is that, by asking for "just" twelve miles, the Government will decide to also pay for double track/ electrification/ faster alignments from Colne to Burnley/ Preston/ Manchester etc?
(similarly, the proposals seem a bit coy on whether the Skipton - Colne would be the extension of an already busy Leeds - Skipton service or a brand new path out of Leeds?)
the employment magnet of Leeds
We could give Colne direct trains to Manchester without needing to spend half a billion pounds - but there's no campaign for something simple like "extend the current Manchester - Bolton services that terminate at Blackburn through to Colne"
The only mention of Manchester in these kind of proposals is the idea of a half hourly through train from Manchester Airport to Colne (rather than, y'know, a simpler extension of an existing Manchester train that terminates in Blackburn that could be extended to Colne)
