REBUILDING A MISSING CROSS-PENNINE LINK
A DISTANCE of just 11 miles separates Skipton and Colne, and yet a train journey between the two towns is anything but short and simple.
Currently, it will take you between 2 hours 45 minutes and 3 hours 55 minutes to complete the trip on a weekday, with two to four changes of train. Some of those options even require a 15-minute cross-city walk between Forster Square and Interchange stations in Bradford. Depending on where connections are made, the total distance travelled for the journey works out (subject to route) at between 55 and 75 miles.
This has been the prospect for all passengers from one town intending to reach the other by rail since 1970. In February of that year, the 11½ miles of line, originally built by the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway from Skipton to connect end-on with the East Lancashire Railway, was closed, severing the cross-Pennine link and leaving Colne as the terminus for services continuing east from Burnley.
However, earlier this year, after almost two decades of campaigning by the Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Partnership (SELRAP), the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling gave the go-ahead for a full feasibility study to
