The third issue of On the Line – the newsletter for the Clitheroe Line has now been published and will be available in printed format shortly. To download a PDF version click HERE.

To read Lee Wasnidge’s (Northern Rail’s Area Director West) unedited article please click HERE.

Don’t forget that the second RVR Santa Services will be running on Saturday 17th December! There are two trains the 11.00 & 14.00 services from Manchester Victoria to Clitheroe.

Adults will be offered a mince pie and a sherry from Bromley Cross and Santa will appear at Blackburn and will go through the train with his elves to hand out goody bags to every child under 12!

To see full details and some photographs from the first Santa Service last week click HERE.

Improvements worth £400,000 will be carried out at Darwen railway station in the next 12 months. After almost three years of talks about enhancements, Blackburn with Darwen Council has secured £200,000 ‘matched’ funding from Network Rail’s National Station Improvement Programme (NSIP). The changes will focus on improved security, better passenger shelters and information, and the installation of self serve ticket machines.

Sunnyhurst councillor Dave Smith hailed the news as “excellent” for the town. He said: “The facilities are very poor at the moment, with little maintenance carried out. The shelters are inadequate and there is quite a lot of vandalism. You get people throwing things on the line and urinating in the shelters. Now, after lobbying for some time, there are going to be big improvements. Hopefully the improved CCTV will discourage people from hanging around and the ticket machines will stop people travelling for free.”

Since the late 1980s, Darwen station has been unmanned, meaning no facility for buying pre-boarding tickets or access to up-to-the-minute rail information. Now, four customer information screens will be installed as well as a new public announcement system. The barrel-roofed shelters will be removed and two new larger waiting shelters, including seating and lighting, installed. Handrails and anti-slip devices will be installed on steps and disabled access ramps. There will also be an overhaul of the landscaped area including the replanting of shrubs in the station planters.

Saturday’s Guardian newspaper featured their ‘Green Travel List’ for 2011. In the top 20 of  the most innovative eco-tourism projects, trips and places to stay, selected by an expert panel – and Guardian readers is Accrington Eco Station. 

The listing reads:

The first truly “green” railway station building on the UK network opened in Accrington in December 2010. It was built from recycled stone, photovoltaic cells provide some of the station’s electricity, hot water is solar-powered, and harvested rain water is used for flushing toilets. The building houses a ticket office (operated by Northern Rail), but its purpose is also to spread the green message, via an education resource centre.

T0 see the full Green Travel List click the image above.

Issue 13 of Reading Between The Lines, the newsletter of the Lancashire Community Rail Partnerships is now available to download off the Community Rail Lancashire website – visit www.communityraillancashire.co.uk/publicity/newsletters-other-publications to see the latest issue.

The Deputy Prime Minister has approved an £8.8 million bid for the re-instatement of the Todmorden Curve rail link and redevelopment of the Weavers’ Triangle in Burnley.

The announcement made yesterday by the Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP was part of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund and means:

Train travel between Burnley and Manchester will be halved as a direct rail link is shared for the first time in 40 years;

£50 million will be invested by Barnfield Investment Properties in a 3.9 hectare redevelopment of historically significant weaving mills along the Leeds Liverpool Canal – the Weaver’s Triangle;

Potentially up to 1000 jobs will be created within a decade.

To see the full media release click HERE.

Below are some images relating to the bid.

Accrington Eco station has been commended by the judges in the Grand Final of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Awards 2011, held at the Savoy Hotel London today. The station was one of two entries commended in the category of Sustainability. The full list of commended projects and winners can be found by visiting the RICS website at http://www.rics.org/awards

BLACKBURN Railway Station’s new-look platform was unveiled yesterday.

The £1.7million renovation of platform four was officially opened by Blackburn MP Jack Straw and is set to make travelling on the East Lancashire lines a more comfortable experience.

The report drawn up by Strzala Bright Seed Architects (SBS) based in Manchester has taken the objectives below and created a 59 page Regeneration Feasibility Study:

• To develop an overall costed master plan for the station,
• To develop plans to RIBA stage D,
• To develop plans that can be submitted to Network Rail for Landlord’s Consent and for Form A technical approval,
• To maximise the park and ride potential of the station site,
• To maximise the potential for improved cycle parking at the station,
• To improve links from the station to/from Burnley town centre,
• To develop plans for the conversion of the old station building to provide a booking office that meets the requirements of Northern Rail’s cash regulations and a community facility and;
• To improve passenger waiting facilities, passenger security and information provision at the station.

The station is currently an unmanned halt on the Blackpool North to York route but it has by far and away the highest footfall of the three stations in Burnley and this could soon more than double when the proposed service to Manchester via the Todmorden south west curve is developed.

The development of the station is part of a multi million pound Masterplan to regenerate the town. Funding for the station project has been confirmed from Burnley Borough Council and from Lancashire County Council’s Local Transport Plan 3 and a bid is to be made for European funding from the Interreg IVB North West Europe Programme.

Below are some architects impressions of what the refurbished station might look like: