SELRAP: - the Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership Issue 12 Winter 2008/09
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CravenRail The newsletter for supporters of SELRAP: - the Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership Issue 12 Winter 2008/09 “Should the promoters of the scheme to reopen the route from Skipton – Colne be successful in securing funding, then it is likely that this line will have been reopened”..... a look back from the future by Network Rail ..... as published in the Lancashire and Cumbria Route Utilisation Strategy, August 2008. So the sooner our potential funding partners show their hand and open their purses, the sooner the Skipton-Colne line will become a reality..... Ed. Colne Skipton SELRAP: Making a Difference and MENDING THE We’re Getting GAP There! Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership LINKING CITIES AND REGIONS ACROSS THE NORTH Patrons: Richard Bannister, Rt Rev. Nicholas Reade, MPs David Curry, Nigel Evans, Anne McIntosh, Gordon Prentice, Kitty Ussher MEPs Chris Davies, Den Dover, Timothy Kirkhope, Brian Simpson, Diana Wallis. 2 Reopening a railway has been likened to pushing a boulder uphill. But SELRAP has gone one better and Contents moved mountains. Tireless campaigning has metamorphosed the case for reopening the Skipton-Colne railway. And now it’s Colne Skipton FRONT COVER The epitome of pre & official. Funding is now the remaining obstacle to SELRAP: post investment: reinstatement of the Skipton-Colne line. Looking back Making A Pacer Train awaits from the future, the quote on the front cover says it a departure from Colne, whilst less than a dozen all: Difference miles away, a modern electric train waits in and Should the promoters of the scheme to reopen the Skipton. route from Skipton – Colne be successful in securing MENDING And now it’s official: Only funding stands in funding, then it is likely that this line will have been THE the way of reinstating We’re reopened. the line that will link the GAP Getting two towns. But it gets better. For, within Network Rail’s recently There But what’s this. Isn’t there a glint of green on published Route Utilisation Strategy for the Lancashire the signal too! & Cumbria region there are further references to the potential for reinstating the Skipton-Colne line. And all of them point in the same direction ..... towards a WE’RE GETTING THERE working assumption that the line will reopen. The A turning point for SELRAP as the campaign to reopen quote below says it all. And there are more ..... the Skipton-Colne line gets a green light. A study commissioned on behalf of local stakeholders 3 COMMENT has identified a potential high level case for reinstatement of the line and services between Skipton On how the Department of Fairy Tales bears a striking and Colne. The most significant issue now is how the resemblance to reality. scheme could be funded. HEADLINES Promoter, local stakeholder ..... call, the Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership what you will. For 4 REGULAR READERS REMINDED the fact remains that the study Network Rail refers to 4 NEW MAP UNVEILED was carried out by JMP Consulting on behalf of SELRAP. And, published last year, it has proved to be a turning 4 126 MPs, 47 PEERS & 40 MEPs point for the campaign ..... opening doors previously closed to the group. 5 A TALE OF TWO LINES The photographs below epitomise that fact! 6 MEANWHILE ..... Colne: NEWS The buffer stops at the end of the line. For now ..... 6 WHAT SELRAP’S DOING ABOUT IT But what’s this? As though by magic, the green light points to the fact that, far from being the 6 BROAD BASE OF SUPPORT end of the line, this is the start of a new through route to Skipton, 7 NEW PATRON Leeds, Carlisle, and more. 7 ANOTHER VINTAGE YEAR 8 MORE HEAR OF SELRAP 8 ROUTE UTILISATION STRATEGY 9 AND THE MEDIA TOO Skipton: With apologies for the fact that the photograph 9 ANOTHER NEW PATRON was taken with a very long lens, the line to 9 TELL THE PRIME MINISTER Carlisle curves to the right. The short stub on 9 MORE SUPPORT STILL the left is all that remains of the line to Colne. For 10 APPRECIATE THE SCALE OF IT NOW? now ..... And, just discernible in the distance; isn’t that a 10 GOING THAT EXTRA MILE green light on the buffers 11 SELRAP NEEDS YOU there too? 11 FUNDING THE GAP Beyond the technology to fix red lights, CravenRail 11 closed with the notion that if you only do what you’ve WHAT ELSE always done, you’ll only get what you’ve always had. 12 MEMBERSHIP FORM & CONTACTS Those of us at the thick end of the campaign are more than aware of this. And it has to be said that this is 12 SHOPPERS’ SPECIAL TRAIN one of the reasons why we are where we are ..... with green lights now pointing the way towards engaging 12 EVENTS with potential funding partners. And that new trans- 12 MEETINGS SCHEDULE Pennine rail link ..... 3 Skipton 2008 Comment Time was when most parts of the country were accessible by rail. Look at it now ..... Once upon a time there was a railway that everyone regarded as a National Treasure. Big enough and bold enough to carry everything that moved, the Queen was proud of her country’s trains, for they enabled factories to be built, towns to grow, and people to travel almost anywhere they wanted. Best of all, they helped to make her country wealthy. FOR WANT OF A RAIL But, as all those familiar with the Department of Fairy Tales will be acutely aware, once upon another time there was a big bad wolf ..... who huffed, and he puffed, and For want of a Rail, the Train well ..... you know the rest! Yet despite unprecedented demands on our rationalised was lost rail network, with surprising similarity to another of those childhood tales, putting it For want of a Train, the all back together again appears to be beyond the combined wit of all the king’s Journey was lost horses and all the king’s men. So to speak. For want of a Journey, the Enough of that. And back to the grown up reality that the nation’s wealth really is Job was lost closely tied to its transport network. Since half the rail network was trashed, there has been a sixfold increase in road traffic. And what with 35 million vehicles For want of a Job, Prosperity currently registered in the UK, it doesn’t take rocket science to realise that road was lost transport has become victim of its own success. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not For want of Prosperity, the knocking road transport per se. For cars, buses and trucks are part of the nuts and Region was lost bolts of society. And, like 70% of the population that have access to a car I, too, appreciate the convenience and versatility it offers. And all for the want of a relaid Rail On the other hand, with employees arriving late for work, unpredictable delivery times for commerce, industry et al, increasing road congestion is costing the nation Colne 2008 dearly. Indeed, the combined cost [to the nation] of road congestion and traffic accidents exceeds £30 billion per year. Then factor into the equation well founded concerns for the environment, accessibility, sustainability, and more. And ..... in 21st century UK ..... the fifth largest economy in the world ..... never forget the bit about choice. I know all of this. You know all of this. The DfT knows it too. Geoff Hoon is the thirteenth Secretary of State for Transport since privatisation of the rail network in 1994. And by the time you read this his advisors will, doubtless, have made him aware of all of this, too. Together with their suggested solutions. To half the nation that already has access to rail services I guess that longer trains and platforms sounds like a sensible sort of idea. Bolt on to that the somewhat belated notion of extending electrification. Together with the odd new line or two if Fact: you can wait another twenty years. And it begins to sounds like a sort of policy. But In 1958 almost 20,000 miles for the other 30 million of us, who had their railways surgically removed ‘cos they of railways were served by weren’t making a profit, all of this is as much hot air. more than 5,000 stations. Worldwide statistics tell us that transport infrastructure almost never makes a profit. Another fact: Meanwhile, fixated, still, with the holy grail of business case, profit et al, worthwhile projects remain stuck in the sand. That said, ask yourself how much profit the road In 2008 2,500 stations serve a outside your home makes. And then ask how life would be without it ..... network of just 10,000 miles. And then, wearing my baby boomer’s hat to cover a balding pate, there’s a wild card With apologies to Benjamin to consider. The most travelled generation ever ..... and many with disposable Franklin et al ..... and thanks income that makes this possible well into retirement ..... by 2015 there will be 15 to SELRAP’s Events Officer, million of us over sixty. Right now I’m perfectly happy to climb into my car and drive Paul Haywood, the poem above says it all. it hundreds of miles. Done it for over forty years. And many of my cohorts would say the same. But how we will feel in the years to come remains to be seen. Yet, Makes you think. having developed the travel habit over many years, I guess that only the wooden box It should.