On Saturday, I was delighted to welcome the Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling MP to Colne where he announced funding for a feasibility study on reopening the Colne to Skipton railway line.
This is something I have been pushing for since being elected in 2010 and marks a major step towards improving our area’s connectivity. The line closed during a time when our railways were in public ownership and in decline. Now, more people are travelling by train and it is right to bring back existing lines. The Todmorden Curve, which facilitates direct train travel from Burnley to Manchester, reopened in 2015 after a £10 million investment. Re-opening Colne-Skipton doesn’t just open up services to Yorkshire, but would also open up our connections to Manchester.
Obviously we have a long way to go to secure the funding for re-opening and are competing against other worthy projects across the UK but in my countless meetings with Chris Grayling over the past six months I have strongly made the case for our line. I will keep up the pressure to ensure that if the study comes back positively, the government moves forward with the re-opening without delay.
At the same time I am also working to resolve the other major transport issue we have – the shocking traffic congestion through Colne. Last year the Government set aside substantial funds for road widening schemes and by-passes to deal with congestion like Colne’s. Whilst allocation of funds will be decided in Whitehall, there will be a competitive bidding process for Transport Authorities across the UK to put forward their plans. In December I called on Lancashire County Council to bid and raised Colne’s traffic problems with Chris Grayling during his visit too.
The good news is the County Council have already approved £586,000 towards a package of junction and network management enhancements to improve traffic flow along North Valley Road. A further £414,000 has been allocated to the project within the Council’s Transport Capital Programme, making a total project budget of £1 million. As the County Council are already spending money on trying to address the congestion, I feel a bid to government for substantial funding makes perfect sense. If such a bid was made I’d put just as much effort into improving Pendle’s road connectivity as I have our rail connectivity, but we need the County Council to bid for the money.