Projects to improve three of the stations on the South Fylde Line have got underway. The projects are part of Fylde Borough Council’s Lytham St. Annes 2020 Vision and linked to the 2012 Open Golf Tournament that is being held at the prestigious Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in July. To see the full details please click HERE.

Northern Rail have advised us that there will be two new services introduced in East Lancashire with the May 2012 timetable changes.

On the Clitheroe Line there will be a 23.24 service (Mon – Sat) from Clitheroe to Blackburn calling at Whalley, Langho, Ramsgreave & Wilpshire and Blackburn.

On the East Lancs Line there will be 23.50 service (Fri only) from Colne to Preston calling at Nelson, Burnley Central, Accrington, Blackburn and Preston.

Full details of timings will be published shortly.

Please see below for planned engineering works during the forthcoming months affecting Community Rail Lines.

Blackpool to Colne

Monday 13th February 2012 to Friday 17th February 2012 - early morning and late night trains will be amended or replaced by buses – click HERE for details

York to Blackpool North

Mondays to Fridays 30th January 2012 to 23rd March 2012  - the 20.29 service from Blackpool North to York will terminate at Micklefield. Connecting buses will run from Micklefield to York – click HERE for full details.

Sundays 19th & 26th February 2012  - services will be replaced by buses between Burnley Manchester Road and Hebden Bridge – full details to follow.  

Leeds to Carlisle and Morecambe

No engineering work currently in force

Clitheroe to Blackburn, Bolton & Manchester Victoria

Saturday 4th February 2012 - train services will start and terminate at Bolton with connecting trains between Bolton, Salford Crescent and Manchester Victoria – Click HERE to see full details.

Preston to Ormskirk

No engineering work currently in force

Wigan to Southport & Kirkby

No engineering work currently in force

Further information can be found by visiting www.nationalrail.co.uk or www.northernrail.org/travel/engineering.

Accrington Eco Station has been short listed in the Station Excellence category of the 2011 Rail Business Awards. The awards ceremony will be taking place in London on February 16th 2012.

It is ‘on track’ for the transformation of Burnley Manchester Road station as plans are submitted.

An application for planning permission has been submitted for the redevelopment of Manchester Road Railway Station in Burnley.

Burnley Council in partnership with Lancashire County Council, the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership, Northern Rail and Network Rail is redeveloping the station in advance of the implementation of the Todmorden Curve railway improvements, which will see travel times to Manchester cut from 1 hour and 45 minutes to 53 minutes. These improvements are likely to see a strong increase in passenger numbers at the station, which is already Burnley’s busiest station.

To see the full press release click HERE

The East Lancashire CRP has been successful in bid for funding from the Designated Community Rail Development Fund. They have been awarded a sum of £3400 towards a project called ‘My Mill Hill’ centered on the station on the outskirts of Blackburn.

This innovative project started early in the New Year and will bring some much needed colour and ownership to one of the areas more neglected stations. Mill Hill station, on the outskirts of Blackburn, has long been a magnet for antisocial behaviour, graffiti and vandalism. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has worked with Northern Rail and the East Lancashire Line Community Rail Partnership to fund CCTV cameras at the station to make the station a safer environment for passengers. The ‘My Mill Hill’ project has been put together to try and bring the station back into the community through engagement with local schools, youth clubs and community groups. A local senior citizen group will also be engaged which gives the project a rounded balanced community involvement.

The Designated Community Rail Development Fund is sponsored by the Department of Transport, Network Rail and the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) and helps provide funding for development of community rail lines that have been designated as part of the Government’s Community Rail Strategy.   

The East Lancs CRP has just been advised that the IncrEdible Friends of Accrington Station have been successful in a bid for funding for some planters for Accrington Station.

The funding is coming from a Green Partnership Award which is granted by the Hyndburn Green Spaces Forum. The forum is made up of all the voluntary groups in the Hyndburn area that are involved in green spaces and indicates strong support from the voluntary community in Hyndburn.

The funding will provide six wooden planters, four of which will be set aside for growing edibles and two for flowers and these should be installed on the platforms at Accrington shortly.

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Peter Moore, Chair of Ribble Valley Rail passed away on Wednesday 11th January. Our sincere condolences go to his widow Joan and her family at this very sad time.

Peter Moore 1936 - 2012

 Over the years the name Peter Moore has been synonymous with the Clitheroe to Blackburn Line. He was the Chairman of Ribble Valley Rail, since its formation in 1986, until his recent death. Under his chairmanship RVR were successful in their eight-year campaign for the re-opening of the line to passenger traffic, which had ceased in 1962.  Since the re-opening of the line in May 1994 the organisation has continued to work for improvements to the service, infrastructure and reliability.

Peter’s personality, his unbounding energy and enthusiasm enabled him to gain the ear of MPs, chief executives of local government, Regional Railways and TOCs most recently Northern Rail. He was delighted when in May 2007 the line gained Community Line status.  Peter recognised the value of being part of a Community Rail Partnership as being the way forward and his contributions were always valued.  He will be sadly missed by his many friends and colleagues in the rail industry and beyond and particularly by his friends in his beloved Ribble Valley Rail.   

The excellent value East Lancs Day Ranger (ELDR) has just got better. Fancy a trip to Bury Market - no problem, more frequent service Blackburn to Chorley – no problem!

Transdev have extended their existing Burnley to Bacup service (Starship route no 8 ) through to Bury and the ELDR is now available on this route. Click HERE to download a Starship no 8 timetable.

Transdev have also introduced a half hourly service through the day on the Lancashire United 124 service from Blackburn Boulevard to Chorley. The ELDR is available on this route but can only be bought on Transdev buses (or at a manned rail station or on train) but will be honoured by Stagecoach who operate this service in the evenings. Click HERE to download a Lancashire United Route 124 timetable.

The ELDR is competively priced at £10.50 for adults and £5.25 for children. Therei s also a Family ticket available for £21.00. Click HERE to go to the Northern Rail website for full details and a map of the area covered.

The Clitheroe/Blackburn to Manchester line was the subject of a parliamentary Adjournment debate on Tuesday 10 January, 2012.  Jack Straw, MP for Blackburn called for the debate in order that he could outline the issues faced by commuters and regular users of the line and ask the Minister for advice on how services might be improved.

In his speech, Jack Straw outlined the investment that has taken place and the issues regarding overcrowding, reliability and the ageing rolling stock and said “The frustration that we all feel – the Catch 22 – is that we know as a fact that there has been a huge increase in ridership even given the less than satisfactory frequency, reliability and comfort …and we are convinced that pretty modest improvements in the scale of things would enable there to be dramatic improvements in reliability, frequency and ridership, with major benefits to the local economy”.  His views were echoed by Jake Berry, MP who looked for the Darwen Dividend and added “Even with the current overcrowded and often unreliable service, 10% of the borough’s workforce ….commute to Greater Manchester to work. … Manchester is the north-west’s superpower.  He added “That (the) jobs and growth dividend must be shared across Blackburn and Darwen.

Replying to the debate Theresa Villiers, Minister of State, Department for Treansport, commented, “I have been asked this evening to give advice on taking forward an improvement programme.  The first stage has already been achieved – obtaining the support of the relevant local authorities.  It is only when a commitment is made by the local authorities to prioritise these things locally that they have any chance of getting off the ground”.  Later commenting on how the project might be funded she added, “one possible source of funding would be the next major local transport schemes budget.  This is the kind of project for which it is well worth putting forward a bid to that funding stream…. If the proposal to introduce half-hourly services on the line were awarded funding under this budget, I am advised that a scheme could conceivably be implemented by December 2016, which might tie in with the north-west electrification programme and the Ordsall Curve, which we expect to have been completed by that date.”

The debate has highlighted some of the major short comings of the present service but has also demonstrated that fairly modest investment would improve reliability, capacity and frequency – a real win, win.  There is a lot of work to do but the local authorities and the CRP will be fully engaging in this process.

To see the full record of the debate please click the link below or copy it into your browser.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201212/cmhansrd/cm120110/debtext/120110-0004.htm#1201115000002