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Mike Ashworth posted an update
The reopening of the Skipton to Colne Line.
There is a real problem with the Colne to Skipton reinstatement (I know it was not closed by Beeching but due to a new dual carriage way and motorway from Rossendale to Manchester severing the line used by trains travelling from Skipton to Manchester) and this is it would never deliver enough ridership to justify the amount of civil engineering just to get out of Colne.
The promise of cutting the time taken from Burnley to Bradford and Leeds to an hour is already met by trains from Burnley, so there is route duplication, which is not a brilliant business model.
There would be a need to change trains at Skipton for onward travel unless the line from Skipton to Preston was Electrified, adding yet more cost to the line reopening.
After looking into the reopening of the Clitheroe to Hellifield Line I discovered that all that would be need is a limit of shunt sign on the up platform at Hellifield, and one extra train set, this makes this route one of the cheapest line reopening’s in the UK, and has a route catchment area of over 3 million, yet no one want to do this simple reopening.
The line from Clitheroe to Hellifield is maintained to mainline standards and the majority of passengers carried on the line is done using steam power in 2025.