The South Fylde and East Lancashire Line CRPs have recently been successful in bidding for money from the Designated Line Commnity Rail Development Fund.

The South Fylde Line CRP is to use their money to design and print a 12 page A5 brochure to market the line. The brochure will highlight the attractions of this scenic line and also give users ideas of things to do and places to visit.

The East Lancashire Line CRP is looking to give the Pendle Connect ticket a marketing boost. The Pendle Connect ticket is a revolutionary new combined bus and rail ticket, that offers the opportunity to buy a ticket on the bus in the Pendle area, travel to your local rail station and then continue your journey by rail to Accrington, Blackburn or Preston! The grant money will be used to design new posters, and leaflets to publicise the ticket at bus and rail stations and also on the bus. Click here for more information about the Pendle Connect ticket

Northern Rail, Transdev and the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership have agreed some changes to the East Lancashire Day Ranger, and these came into effect on January 2nd 2010. The time restriction has been lifted and the ticket is now available all day and along with the addition of two new bus routes, Blackburn to Chorley and Burnley to Todmorden, makes the ticket an even better way to spend a day out in East Lancashire! Full details of the changes can be found by clicking HERE.

Northern Rail have announced significant changes to their Duo tickets that will benefit customers travelling throughout Lancashire. Currently the Duo ticket is only available between two points on a line of route and the changes will allow customers to buy Duo tickets that cover more than one line of route.

Details of the changes can be seen below:

Clitheroe – Manchester Victoria via Darwen line to all stations on the East Lancashire line (Colne /Burnley Manchester Road – Blackburn section).

Clitheroe line (Clitheroe – Blackburn section) / East Lancashire line (Colne / Burnley Manchester Road – Preston) to all station on the Ormskirk branch.

Clitheroe line (Clitheroe – Blackburn section) to all stations as far as Preston.

Burnley Manchester Road to Manchester Victoria via Hebden Bridge

Ormskirk branch to Liverpool Stations via Ormskirk and Merseyrail Electrics

Kirkby, Rainford and Upholland to station via Wigan / Atherton to Manchester Victoria

Finally Blackpool South branch and Blackpool North, Poulton-le-Fylde & Kirkham & Wesham to

Blackburn and station beyond on the East Lancashire line – these are only valid in this direction

only.

New ‘eco lights’ part funded by the Designated Line Community Rail Development Fund, have now been installed at Brierfield and Rishton station car parks. The lights, powered by solar panels and small wind turbines, are part of the ‘Greening of the East Lancashire Line’ project.

The East Lancashire CRP has been successful in bidding for a grant towards preparing a Station Guide as part of its Station Travel Plan. The grant from the Designated Line Community Rail Development Fund amounts to £3250.00 and will be match funded from other sources, including the SusStations Interreg IVB European Project.

RVR Santa Services

Ribble Valley Rail, the user group for the Clitheroe Line will once again be running its famous Santa Services on Saturdays 12th & 19th December 2009. The Santa Services are specially decorated service trains and depart Manchester Victoria at 11.00 and 14.00.

Santa joins the train at Blackburn and all children under 12 years old will receive a goody bag as Santa passes through the train. RVR voulnteers will also be handing out mince pies and sherry for the adults. Click on the image for more details of the Santa Services in 2009.

Ribble Valley Rail has once again been supported by Booths Supermarkets, D Byrne & Co., Northern Rail, Lancashire County Council, British Transport Police & Ribble Valley Borough Council.

Come along and join in the fun! No need to book – normal fares apply with an hourly return service! Click here for full timetable.

For the second year running, the West of Lancashire CRP in partnership with Northern Rail and Network Rail will be running Christmas Shopper Services on Sunday 6th December 2009. The services between Preston and Ormskirk are unusual in that there isn’t normally a service on the line on Sundays. There will be five trains in each direction starting with a 10.00 departure from Preston. For full details of this exciting opportunity please click here!

The East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership has been successful in a bid for funding to make a second ‘Brian the Bull’ DVD. £4500 has been secured from the Designated Line Community Rail Development Fund and along with matched funding it is hoped to start production soon. The DVD will be a journey along the East Lancashire line and will feature various stations where an eco theme has been introduced.

The stations will include, Lostock Hall where refurbished waiting shelters are to be installed and the old brick shelters are to be dismantled and recycled into a project at Accrington, Rishton and Brierfield where eco lighting is to be installed on the station car parks and of course the big project at Accrington where a brand new station building is being constructed using a number of green technologies including rain water harvesting, recycled stone and solar & wind energy.

Watch this space for regular updates on the project!

Interreg IVb

As part of the susStations Interreg IVb project, the team developing the new Accrington Eco Station visited Berlin Hbf station to learn about how Deutsche Bahn (DB) has used PV (photovoltaic) panels in the new station’s glazed overall roof.  Representing Lancashire County Council and the East Lancashire CRP was Richard Watts and for Northern Rail was Karen Booth.  As the picture shows the PV panels are incorporated into part of the glazed roof covering the upper platforms at the Berlin Hbf station.  It is estimated that all the PV’s incorporated into the roof produce about 2% of the electricity consumed by the station.  However, this is fed into the general electricity grid rather than used directly at the station.

It is the intention to use PVs at Accrington to generate some of the electricity needed to run the station. This carbon friendly energy production will also be supplemented by electricity generated by wind turbine. The rest of the electricity requirements will be met by a green energy supplier.

A grant of £5k has been secured from the Designated Line Community Rail Development Fund (DLCRDF) to develop a scheme at Lytham station to open up the station entrance and to generally enhance customer perception. The grant is 50% of the total package with the balance coming from Northern Rail and Lancashire County Council.

The scheme will see removal of the arch and lowering of the wall at the entrance to open up the platform area and make the shelter visible from the road. The shelter will get a deep clean and lighting will be relocated and new poster panels will be added. The area at the entrance will be landscaped and bollards will be installed to stop cars parking on the approach to the station.