Colne - Transport

Transport

Colne is connected to the national railway network. Colne railway station is ¾m (1 km) west of the town centre. It forms the eastern terminus of the East Lancashire Line, which runs to Nelson, Brierfield, Burnley and on to Preston and Blackpool. The line beyond Colne to Skipton, formerly part of the Midland Railway, was closed by British Rail in 1970.

The local bus company, Burnley & Pendle, was part-owned until 1996 by the local borough council. There are buses every few minutes during the daytime on the 'Main Line' service between Burnley bus station and Colne town centre. Most of these then fork in various directions at each end, and continue to Padiham, Clitheroe or Accrington from Burnley, and to Earby, Barnoldswick, Trawden or Keighley from Colne. Until 2005 the town had a direct bus service to Manchester in the shape of route X43, but this was withdrawn following low usage. and the Main Line routes improved in frequency to compensate.

Pennine Motor Services, based in Skipton, operates an hourly service with distinctive orange buses each way from Skipton to Burnley via Colne.

Colne is on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. North-east of Colne the canal enters a 1 mile (1.6 km)-long dead straight tunnel to Foulridge. At the western end of the tunnel, three reservoirs built between 1793 and 1866 feed the summit level.