Craven College students join campaign to reopen 12-mile Colne-Skipton railway line
Burnley Express, 24th September
College students are joining the campaign to reopen the long-missing railway line between Skipton and East Lancashire.
Second-year business and social media/marketing students from Craven College will make the proposed reopening of the 12-mile Colne-Skipton line a focus of their studies this term.
The students will work with the Skipton East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP), including helping to publicise a new petition calling for the railway to be reinstated.
The petition is due to be launched on October 10th.
The partnership made the announcement at its members’ meeting in Skipton, where it was highlighted that better rail links could provide greater access to employment, education and leisure opportunities for people across East Lancashire.
SELRAP chairman Andy Dixon said the involvement of the students was a major boost for the campaign.
He said: “The Colne-Skipton Line’s reopening will bring transformational benefits for young people across the North, providing much-needed access to work, education and leisure opportunities, so it’s great to involve some of them in making it a reality.”
He said: “Improving public transport links over the border is a priority for us.
“The students are already working up their ideas, particularly how the SELRAP campaign can engage more younger people.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to get hands-on experience on such an important, real-life project.”
The Colne-Skipton railway closed to passenger services in 1970, leaving communities in East Lancashire without a direct rail connection to Skipton and the wider rail network.
The SELRAP meeting also heard that the Skipton branch of the RMT union had unanimously passed a motion calling on the Department for Transport and regional authorities to provide the capital funding needed to progress construction of the line “without delay”.
Guest speaker Theo Morgan Lundie, a PhD researcher at Lancaster University specialising in sustainable public transport, outlined the potential social, economic and environmental benefits of reopening the route.
He also told members that passenger numbers on similar reopened rail lines around the country had exceeded government forecasts by as much as 400%.
The campaign continues to call for the Colne-Skipton route to be reinstated, which would create a direct rail connection between East Lancashire and North Yorkshire.
