Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Rose Grove Hebden Bridge

07:55 08:16 08:29 08:46 09:14

18:21 17:50 17:47 17:34 17:30

17:23 16:59 16:48 16:35 16:30

Halifax

arriving Bradford

departing Bradford

arriving Leeds 16:05 Passengers for Leeds change in Bradford Interchange and passengers must use the services as listed, as tickets were not valid on other services. This service would not operate on Bank Holidays or weekends. Railcards were valid and special ‘Awayday’ tickets from Accrington would cost £2:50p to Hebden Bridge, £2:75p to Halifax, £3:00 to Bradford Interchange and £3:50p to Leeds. Children would be charged at half fare. Dundee was the destination of the special excursion on Saturday the 21 st , with 47:479 at the head of eight carriages. Again this was a Bescot locomotive. May The initial train to Bradford ran in the morning of May 14 th , with just one return service in the afternoon, which were both timetabled for the use of the public and a stop in Accrington Station was included. Due to this collaboration between the National & Provincial Building Society and BR, it would operate on weekdays to carry staff and internal mail of the Society which had recently merged with the Burnley Building Society between the head offices of the two organisations. It would be open to ‘ordinary’ passengers and would call in at Rose Grove, Hebden Bridge and Halifax, before terminating at Bradford Interchange where passengers for Leeds would have to change, and it was also hoped that Burnley Manchester Road Station would be re-opened in order to afford staff an improved journey. BR and Lancashire Police were issuing warnings to parents to tell their children not to trespass on the railway during the approaching summer holidays, as incidents of this type were on the increase. MP Ken Hargreaves had criticised BR for only allowing four minutes to make the connection in Preston onto the Inter-City London train. Any delays on the East Lancs Line could see a missed connection and a journey of 3½ hours increased to over 6 hours. However, in June following his protests BR had made a concession to the town’s MP, by starting the 10:22 from Colne one minute earlier so as to give a full five minutes in Preston to change onto the Royal Scot, which departed Preston for Euston at 11:34. He had also managed to persuade BR to give better connections off the Blackburn to Manchester trains. June The Highways & Transportation Committee met again when the DES&T was requested to express to Lancashire County Council, about Hyndburn’s extreme concerns and dismay at the amount of finance being allocated by British Railways towards their proposal for electrification of the line linking Manchester and Blackpool. Particularly as the BR Board had its own source for funding and the cost effectiveness of this scheme had been called into question, added to which there was a shortfall in the amount of funds allocated to the associated infrastructure. The Town Clerk then referred to reports in the local press that the MP had raised a number of issues with BR, prominent amongst them being the ‘tightness’ of the connections to other trains in Preston, and that he was pressing for a meeting with senior managers in order to discuss these issues. He himself had also been pursuing these issues and circulated copies of correspondence dated May 17 th , to Mr McCubbin of BR and the responses from Mr McCubbin, dated May 28 th and June 5 th , respectively. It was resolved that the town Clerk should request a meeting with the town’s MP and British Railways in order to discuss the services and rolling stock on the East Lancs Line. July At a meeting of the Development Services Committee, the Borough Planning Officer submitted a report setting out the second phase of the Great Harwood to Whitebirk ‘Disused Railway Scheme’. It was resolved that the after-use proposals for this section would be approved, but subject to allocation of 100% of the Land Reclamation Grant. It was also decided to grant permission for the acquisition of the following land, either by agreement or by Compulsory Purchase Orders, pursuant to the regulations contained in Section 89 of the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act 1949 - (a) The disused railway at Lower Cunliffe in Rishton. (b) The disused railway at Tottleworth. 09:35 17:05

(c) The former Spring Tip and dismantler’s yard in Rishton.

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