Valley railway plans may need a change of direction
IF there is one positive thing about not having a railway service in Rossendale, it’s that a strike on the railways has almost zero impact on life here.
But while this week’s headlines have understandably been dominated by the decision of 50,000 railway workers to go on strike, here in Rossendale, an important moment has been reached in the process of whether we’ll ever see a proper commuter railway in the borough again.
Local officials, including the councils and MP Jake Berry, have been urging us to take part in a consultation on whether we’d use a railway line if it was opened here.
The closing date for the consultation was this week.
It’s part of a £150,000 study - the latest in a number of studies - into whether a railway link between Rawtenstall and somewhere in the Greater Manchester area, making use of what is currently the East Lancashire Railway heritage line, is viable.
The reason why there have been multiple reviews and studies over the years is that no one study or review has conclusively proved that such a rail link would be viable.
There has been no shortage in creativity in trying to make the business model stack up, however.
Latterly, the proposal has been for the ELR whose last public comments on any commuter services were very negative - to run a shuttle between Rawtenstall and Bury or Heywood, with people
either transferring to the Metrolink, or the potential for other rail services to provide onward connections on the main rail network.
While creative, this column can’t help but think there’s a danger we’re getting to the point of going all out for a railway service when, frankly, the sums no longer add up.
This column has repeatedly backed calls for a railway service because Rossendale should have a train service.
It’s the only borough in the county of Lancashire
which doesn’t.
And in a country where north of £100bn is being spent on the greatest transport white elephant of all time - the HS2 rail service - surely we should be able to spend a few tens of millions getting people off the roads and on to trains in Rossendale.
But maybe time has moved on, and the pandemic has changed things.
When you watched the video created by the council to encourage people to take part in the consultation, the people talking about the train
service talked about occasional travelling into Manchester, not daily commuting.
Reduced traffic on the roads has made it easier to get into Manchester from Rossendale.
The M66 log-jam in the mornings and evenings is nothing like it used to be, in my experience, at least.
So maybe the focus on making it easier for us to get out of Rossendale by train is looking at it the wrong way.
Maybe it should be about making it easier for people to get into Rossendale by train.
And, of course, by
Rossendale, we really mean Rawtenstall - the current proposed rail link will do little to benefit anyone who lives in Bacup, Whitworth and surrounding areas.
For Rossendale to thrive, we need to make it easier for businesses to be based here, encouraging people to come here to work as a result.
Maybe that is the ticket to a viable railway service here.
The question this column would pose is: What’s the plan for making Rossendale an attractive place to move your business to?