Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

I was also reliably informed that some initial funding had been pledged towards upgrading the basic facilities that at present exist at Accrington’s Railway Station. I know that it was the intention of the powers that be, to have a much more co-ordinated transport policy between road and rail, and that upgraded facilities for rail passengers was seen as an important part of the strategy to link the new bus station with the railway network. Although it has received hardly any attention with regard to present day transport needs, the old trackbed of the Accrington to Stubbins section of railway had now come under the spotlight. Lancashire County Council had £220,000 to spare to upgrade the section between Accrington and Baxenden into a cycle route. The Baxenden incline as it was better known, was closed to passenger traffic in 1964 as part of the Beeching recommendations, and the rails lifted during 1970/1. Although it was popular with walkers, it had received little attention in recent years. The intention was to reinstate a section at the Accrington end, which would lead right into the town ending at St James Square. This would form part of a ‘national’ cycle route running all the way between Preston and Bury. ( I was in favour of such schemes when they were in rural and picturesque areas that are thinly populated, and have an economy partly reliant on tourism. However, this was not the case in urban East Lancashire, where space was at a premium and congestion was becoming an increasing problem. This was a difficult route for the operation of trains with in places an incline of 1 in 38 with which to contend, but it was well engineered by the builders of the Victorian era. Such slopes provided little or no challenge to modern forms of traction, i.e. ‘light rapid transit’ systems. I feared that once this scheme became a reality yet another potential asset would be lost .) It had come to light that anyone booking a first class ticket on a Virgin ‘Voyager’ from stations in East Lancashire were victims of an anomalous scam. The part of their journey to Preston to connect onto their main line train was being charged at the premium rate, but on most of the trains no first class accommodation was available. This meant that anyone travelling from Blackburn to Preston as part of a 1st Class return journey to Carlisle was paying over £50 for a second class seat, whereas the normal fare for this section would be just over £4:00! Rail users groups and the Office of Fair Trading were both looking into the way Virgin are advertising and selling these tickets, to see if there was any misrepresentation of the facts. Meanwhile Virgin Trains themselves were looking into what they describe as “a rare anomaly brought about by unforeseen circumstances”. ( Oh Mr Branson, what shall I do?) On Thursday the 22 nd , the third meeting of the Town Centre Regeneration Board in 2004 was placed solely in the hands of the John Thompson Agency, and for once they allowed the audience to set the agenda and not as was usually the case, the Chair. I am pleased to say that the subject of a bus station was high, if not at the top of the list, and by no means just at my insistence as several others were concerned with the present situation. At the conclusion of the ensuing discussions we were invited to join any one of four groups for a walk around the areas of the town with which we were most concerned. I of course, chose the party that would include both the railway station and also the site of the proposed new bus station. I noted that Nigel Rix, a Director of Hyndburn First, also chose to be in this group. Amongst other places the walk took us over the two platforms that now masquerade as Accrington Railway Station, and down onto the triangle of Union Street, Edgar Street and Blackburn Road, where the current plans for the bus station have it sited. Whilst on our tour there were several impromptu conversations, many of which were centred upon the subject of public transport and the possibilities of promoting both road and rail travel in the Borough. Upon our return to the Saturn Suite in the Globe Centre, four large scale maps of the central area of Accrington had been prepared. Each group was invited to mark out their ideas on these plans, and coloured pens were used to code the various concepts. Green was used for areas of relaxation, recreation and landscaping, black for eyesore properties and red for the priority areas and so on. A member from each of the four groups, which by this time had shrunk to three, was invited to give a short resume of the main issues highlighted by their own group. This proved to be an illuminating experience as each group had several diverse ideas for each section of the town, those for the Grange Lane/Black Abbey areas being particularly ambitious! My main concerns however, were centred on aspects relating to public transport and several ideas emerged during this session. One was for an extensive refurbishment of the railway station. In this scheme the entrance would be at street level off Blackburn Road, on a stairway or lift from an entrance hall/booking office immediately adjacent to the viaduct itself. Some thought that this structure should be

412