Rawtenstall rail link back on track
Rawtenstall could get its passenger rail service back after more than 50 years without one
An East Lancashire town that has been left without a passenger rail service for half a century could have its commuter line restored, following backlash after the proposals were left out of county transport plans.
Campaigners have been calling for Rawtenstall’s passenger service to be brought back for years, with plans to create the ‘City Valley Rail Link’ on the same line that has been maintained by the heritage East Lancashire Railway in the decades after the town’s station closed in 1972.
But when the new Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) unveiled its first ever Local Transport Plan earlier this year, this City Valley Rail Link was conspicuously missing from the scheme to re-invest in the county’s railway services.
Rossendale and Darwen’s MP Andy MacNae called this omission ‘incomprehensible’ at the time, but has recently revealed that plans to restore the commuter service on the heritage railway line are back on track.
The current proposal would see passenger services run from Rawtenstall to Bury using the existing East Lancashire Railway route, with passengers connecting onto Metrolink services into Manchester. A second phase would link services through to Manchester Victoria.
Proponents of the scheme have long argued that providing a rail service link that could get passengers to Manchester in under 50 minutes would deliver a number of major benefits for Rossendale’s 70,000 residents, who live in the only district in Lancashire without a passenger railway service.
According to consultants SYSTRA, residents would benefit from an economic boost resulting from this greater connectivity to employment in Manchester, while also creating 5000 jobs around Rossendale.
The scheme is also argued to create environmental benefits, by cutting up to 500,000 commuter car journeys on the M66 and other roads around the region.
But on Friday, August 28, Andy MacNae MP revealed that pleas from residents and district leaders had not fallen on deaf ears, with the City Valley Rail Link now being included in the latest draft of the LCCA’s Implementation Plan for local transport.
The Rossendale and Darwen MP said: “Good news on our campaign for a commuter rail link into Rawtenstall.
“The scheme was left out of the first draft of Lancashire’s transport implementation plan. That plan is what decides which schemes get taken seriously, so being outside it would have stopped us before we started.
“I’ve now had assurances from directors and leadership at Lancashire County Council that the rail link will be in the final version.
“This opens the way to developing a proper feasibility case for the line, and it means we can start to have these conversations with Greater Manchester and others with some real momentum behind us.
“I’ve secured a meeting with Bev Craig, the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, and I’ll be putting the case to her shortly.”
This means that Rawtenstall’s proposed rail link, estimated to cost around £80 million in 2022, has cleared its first major hurdle, though it still has some way to go before residents can hop on a train to Bury, where a new platform would be created to support the service.
Next, a detailed business case will have to be set out for the restored rail link. This will need to include updated estimates on potential passenger numbers and economic benefits, as well as the scheme’s value for money.
Then, the Rawtenstall rail link will have to compete with the county’s other major rail proposals for funding from both national and local government sources.
The other rail schemes prioritised in the LCCA’s draft implementation plan included reopening the Colne-Skipton railway line, improving rail connections between Blackpool and Colne, delivering a proposed new Ewood/Lower Darwen railway station on the Clitheroe-Manchester route, and major improvements at Preston and Blackpool North stations.