THE action group campaigning to reinstate 12 miles of rail track between Skipton and Colne is building up to a major last push to get the project over the line.

The Skipton - East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP) has appointed an advertising agency to come up with video showing support for the campaign from leading figures, including MPs and business leaders, across the north of the country.

Amber Corns, PR director at Scott Dawson Advertising, based in Burnley, said: “This is a great project.

We’ve seen in Burnley how the reopening of the Todmorden Curve has brought benefits to the town being directly connected to Manchester, so I’m proud to be helping SELRAP get their project over the line.”

SELRAP, which was set up in 2001, says the reinstatement of the line, which passes through Thornton-in-Craven and Earby, would be ‘transformational’ and would level up the East Lancashire and wider Northern economy.

It hopes the new campaign will see the project gaining more public support by showing how a relatively small scheme will bring great benefits to the area.

The reinstatement of the track - if it goes ahead - will connect the Airedale line, a modern and fast train service running from Leeds, into East Lancashire. Two trains will be scheduled per hour, with a new station built at Earby and a replacement station built in Colne.

This, says SELRAP, will bring the Colne-Leeds journey time down to just 50 minutes, with significant benefits for students, commuting, leisure and tourism opportunities in East Lancs and the Yorkshire Dales.

Peter Bryson, chairman of SELRAP, said: “We’ve had so much support from leading figures already on our project, and 2021 is the year we will get this over the line and secure the funding.

“Scott Dawson Advertising had some great ideas on how to get the message across in a way that will capture people’s attention, and this will be the year we get the wheels in motion.”

SELRAP says additional freight trains on the reopened route will make a strategic freight rail corridor from coast to coast, connecting Hull with Liverpool and routes in between. This, say campaigners, will significantly reduce congestion pressure on the M62, and will benefit the environment.