Time to End the Dead End: The Case for the Colne-Skipton Rail Link

Burnley Express, 29th April 2025

Those railway buffers at Colne station should not be there. Our line shouldn't be a cul-de-sac. I continue to campaign for this project which would transform the Pendle area, and provide huge benefits for the wider East Lancashire region.

I often meet people who are weary from the endless talk about this project without action. I understand their frustration. For too long the scheme has been stuck with the Department for Transport, not progressing forward to the "develop stage". The DfT tell me that there are various reasons for this, including estimated passenger numbers being too low and the 'high' capital costs to get it built. Meanwhile, our area misses out on the economic transformation this 12-mile stretch of track would deliver.

Look at the Northumberland Line, reopened last December after 60 years of closure. Officials predicted 50,000 journeys by Easter. The reality? 250,000 – five times higher than expected. Trains are so packed that longer carriages are now needed. What was dismissed as a "colossal failure and waste of money" is proving critics spectacularly wrong.

Behind all the talk of tracks and trains are real people's lives. Working families in our towns who want access to more jobs. Young people who shouldn't have to leave the places they've grown up in just to find decent work. Businesses that would thrive with better connections. Reinstating this line would create a vital east-west route connecting Lancashire to Yorkshire and beyond, opening up job markets and breathing new economic life into our towns and villages.

Jonathan Hinder MP meeting with the Rail Minister Lord Hendy to push for the reinstatement of the railway

Even the Department for Transport admits the case is "strategically strong" for east-west transport. The question isn't whether it makes sense – it's why we're still waiting.

I've been pushing this case at every opportunity – sitting down with ministers, meeting with civil servants in the Department for Transport, working with campaign group SELRAP, and seeing first-hand how similar projects are succeeding elsewhere. I now want Lancashire County Council to really swing behind this project, because local authority support has been so crucial to other such projects becoming a reality.

The fact is that passenger forecasts often underestimate how communities embrace new rail connections. When good services are provided, people use them – the Northumberland Line experience shows exactly what's possible when we invest in our transport infrastructure. I subscribe to the old line "if you build it, they will come".

For decades, money has gone South while our infrastructure needs have been ignored. This Government is rebuilding our public services from the rubble of 14 years of Conservative rule, but I'm holding their feet to the fire to ensure they deliver proper infrastructure investment in the North of England too.

This rail link would be a game-changer for our area – more jobs, better connections, and a stronger local economy.

The buffers at Colne are a visible reminder of how investment and opportunity have been cut off from our area for too long. It is time to tear them down and reconnect East Lancashire to growth, jobs, and the future it deserves and I am doing all I can to keep pushing for the reinstatement.