DIRECT train services from Keighley to Colne and East Lancashire could be an extra benefit of a reopened Skipton-Colne rail link.

This was the view of railway campaign group SELRAP this month as they highlighted major progress in efforts to reinstate the historic trans-Pennine route.

Department of Transport officials recently moved the project from ‘decision to initiate’ to the ‘develop’ stage of the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline.

Efforts will focus on establishing if the capital costs can be very substantially reduced, and reviewing the passenger demand forecasts and service options.

The Skipton-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP) said the existing Airedale Line – which runs to Keighley as it connects Bradford/Leeds with Skipton – could be extended as a result.

The magazine said: “Extension of Leeds-Skipton services into East Lancashire is the current thinking within the Department for Transport via reinstatement of the rail link between Skipton and Colne, primarily as a passenger route.

Peter Bryson, chairman of SELRAP, said: “For the sake of just 12 miles of missing railway line, East Lancashire is a living example of what happens when long-term social distancing leads to economic deprivation, inequality and social immobility. “