Skipton to Colne rail link can benefit Drax and whole region – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: John Fearnley, Cottingley, Bingley.
By YP Letters
Published 15th Feb 2021, 11:35 BST
There are longstanding calls to reopen to the Skipton to Colne rail link.There are longstanding calls to reopen to the Skipton to Colne rail link.
There are longstanding calls to reopen to the Skipton to Colne rail link.

YOU report that Drax will buy a Canadian wood pellet producer, thus acquiring an extra 2.9 million tonnes of biomass (The Yorkshire Post, February 9). This is excellent and exciting news. Presumably this extra tonnage will come into the Port of Liverpool.

At present the rail freight journey to North Yorkshire is complex and time-consuming having to navigate the nightmare gridlock around Manchester.

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How much simpler, quicker and cheaper it would be for the biomass to be carried via East Lancashire and Skipton? This would mean the re-opening of the 12-mile missing rail link between Colne and Skipton, something which the Government says it supports and Drax is very enthusiastic about.

Chris Grayling, the then Transport Secretary, visited Colne in February 2018 to discuss and promote the reopening of the rail link to Skipton.Chris Grayling, the then Transport Secretary, visited Colne in February 2018 to discuss and promote the reopening of the rail link to Skipton.
Chris Grayling, the then Transport Secretary, visited Colne in February 2018 to discuss and promote the reopening of the rail link to Skipton.

It seems to me to be a ‘no-brainer’.

From: Sam Willmott, Bingley.

HOW frustrating that promises to reopen the Skipton to Colne rail link are going nowhere while the Government is advancing a scheme from Bletchley to Bicester.

I hope the past backing of Chris Grayling, the former Transport Secretary, for the Yorkshire project is not proving to be a curse – we need this line if this part of the world is to prosper too.

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Related topics:Yorkshire PostColneGovernmentNorth Yorkshire

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