Report on SELRAP AGM

Lancashire Live, 3rd April 2025

Colne-Skipton rail campaign told tourism and leisure travel 'higher than ever'

Updates on regional and national work at group's AGM in Lancashire

Brierfield station (Image: Robbie MacDonald LDRS)

Campaigners calling for the line between Colne and Skipton to be re-opened, enabling fast trains between Lancashire and Yorkshire, have been told tourism and leisure passenger numbers have surged since the covid pandemic. The Skipton East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP) says tourism, leisure, local economies, education, and housing markets across Lancashire and Yorkshire would all benefit from reopening the missing 11-mile section, which was closed in the early 1970s.

Campaigners want a new double-line developed with fast electric trains. Currently, a single-track Lancashire line runs to Colne, including a station at Brierfield. It is next to the regenerated Northlight Mill, which includes offices, apartments, family leisure attractions, art space, and part of the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.

SELRAP held its annual general meeting in Colne, where speakers included Mike Smith of Network Rail, who highlighted rail restoration projects in other parts of the country. The meeting at Colne Town Hall included members joining on-line too. SELRAP now has over 500 members, organisers said.

Mike Smith spoke about his role as programme director for the Restoring Your Railway scheme and other national projects with Network Rail. He said rail travel was hit during and after the covid pandemic, with changed weekday and weekend travel patterns.

However, railway use recovered and leisure use including tourism is now greater than ever, particularly at weekends. He also highlighted recent passenger rail reopening projects in the Scottish Borders, Northumberland and Dartmoor. They all had good business cases and support of local councils, he said.

SELRAP has been updating its business case over the past 12 months, and lobbying Lancashire and Yorkshire MPs and councils along the route. Pendle Council supports the reopening, along with other organisations including East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, Skipton Building Society, Drax energy, and Peel Ports.

Another development is the focus on regional devolution and the recent launch of the new Lancashire Combined County Authority. SELRAP attended the recent Convention for the North political conference in Preston.

SELRAP members and speakers at the group's 2025 AGM in Colne Town Hall (Image: SELRAP)

Member Chris Oakley was at the Preston convention, along with various English regional mayors and business representatives, and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. She said the key to economic growth in Lancashire is transport connectivity.

Mr Oakley networked and handed out information about the Colne-Skipton campaign. Regarding London-based politics, SELRAP is lobbying government ministers and civil servants there.

Member Andy Dixon said new government rail minister Lord Peter Hendy had agreed that re-opening the Skipton-Colne line was a good scheme and worth doing with a good business case, but no money was available at present. However, Mr Dixon felt progress is being made and things were moving 'from orange to green'.

He said The Treasury's Green Book, a guide for national and local government on the appraisal of projects and public spending, allows for a broader range of benefits to be considered. This includes public and social factors, rather than a simpler cost analysis.

In the past, Green Book guidance - or its interpretation by Westminster politicians and civil servants - has been criticised by some, claiming the methods favoured spending in London and south-east England. Summing-up, SELRAP chairman Peter Bryson said he was pleased with the group's work in continuing to press for the line's reinstatement.