Big investment in railway link would be well worth cost
WILL Rossendale ever get a railway link? Rossendale Council certainly hopes so - and last week revealed it had re-appointed consultants to work up a plan to show it could work.
Rossendale is currently the only borough in Lancashire without a regular rail service.
Last year, consultants managed to provide a proposal which would make a regular rail service between Rossendale and Manchester viable, but it was a bit of a stretch.
Previous studies had suggested such a route would never cover its own costs - there simply aren’t enough people travelling between points a rail service could cover to justify the costs.
The alternative plan was to seek some sort of shuttle service run by the East
Lancashire Railway, between Rawtenstall and Bury, and get people to change on to regular rail services there.
That would have negated massive costs of upgrading the whole East Lancashire Railway line, instead only upgrading the part between Bury and Heywood, where it connects with the National Rail network.
While admirable, it felt like a bit of a make-doand-mend proposal.
Would people really use a train service which involved changing at Bury, and a railway line which has speed limits restricted?
It’s one thing to travel on the ELR as a Saturday day trip, enjoying the sights and sounds of steam and old diesel in your spare time, but it still feels a stretch for that to be part of the daily commute.
And that’s even if the ELR wants to get involved. Rightly, members of the organisation have been wary of seeing something they rescued from being ripped up, and decades of hard work after, being essentially handed back to National Rail.
There’s no doubt some magic of the ELR would be lost if it was a regular commuter route as well.
Will the study be different this time? The current evidence Rossendale Council has - the plan mentioned above - wasn’t enough to convince government to offer financial support to build up a more detailed case for investment.
The Government plans to spend £500m on reopening railway lines which had closed.
It sounds a lot, but when the ELR line alone could cost tens of millions, it’s money which won’t go very far.
The Government has said it’ll look at the Bury to Heywood connection, but hasn’t yet put any money towards working up the plans for the rest of the line - hence the council’s decision to bring consultants back in again.
The world has changed a lot this year.
Commuter numbers are down massively everywhere, and it’s noticeable that Rossendale towns feel busier during weekdays than they did previously.
This probably links to the fact the M66 is quieter during rush hour at the moment. On one hand, both things are perhaps good for the area - but not good for a business case to get a railway line.
But equally the government, led by local MP Jake Berry, have insisted they’re all about levelling up the North through investment.
It’s also important to level up within the North too, and far too often when it comes to big government investment, Rossendale is thrown little more than the scraps.
From housing market renewal, to the latest maybe-funding to improve our high streets, Rossendale always seems to get pennies when other areas are lavished with pounds.
Could the railways fund be different?
Let’s be big and bold and make government put their money where their mouths are: Yes, a proper railway link will be expensive, but it would transform Rossendale for decades.
That’s an investment which is surely worth making.