History
The station opened on 2 October 1848,as the terminus of the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway from Bradford and Skipton. [1] The station became an end-on junction with the East Lancashire Railway's Blackburn,Burnley,Accrington and Colne Extension Railway,which opened on 1 February 1849. By 2 April in the same year the line was part of a through route between Leeds and Liverpool, [1] but the majority of passenger trains east of Colne were local between Skipton and Colne. [2]
The station was rebuilt in 1883 with two engine sheds - one for the Midland Railway to the east,one for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to the west (these two companies now owning the respective lines). [3] In its heyday,the station had regular through links to both Blackpool termini,Fleetwood,Leeds,Liverpool Exchange,Manchester Victoria via Bury Bolton Street and even through coaches to London Euston [4] via Bolton,Manchester Victoria and Stockport. There were also summer dated services to/from Saltburn (worked in conjunction with the London &North Eastern Railway prior to nationalisation of the railways in 1948) and Llandudno. However,these had all disappeared by the mid-1960s as a result of economies imposed by the British Railways Board,leaving only basic local services to/from Preston,Manchester Victoria (via Blackburn) and Skipton. [5]
The Beeching cuts of 1964/5 reduced the services along the Skipton–Colne line,and on 2 February 1970 this section closed to all traffic. [6] A year later the station was downgraded to an unstaffed halt following the dismantling of the route towards Earby,the singling of the surviving line from Nelson and the abandonment of the eastbound island platform - all trains henceforth used the former westbound platform,which had its buildings demolished &replaced by a simple waiting shelter. [3] The remainder of the branch from Gannow Junction (near Rose Grove) to Nelson was also reduced to single track in December 1986 and so the entire line from there is now operated as a 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) "long siding" with no intermediate passing loops (this restricts the service frequency that can operate along the branch, as only one train can be on the branch at a time).
Colne is therefore in the unusual position of having been a western terminus (1848-1849), a through station (1849-1970) and an eastern terminus (1970 to present). The Skipton - East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership campaigns to reinstate the Skipton–Colne line.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
81,126
21,090
