Clogged-up roads are on the cards

It’s fair to say that since I’ve had a bus pass, I rarely use it as, while buses have improved over the last 50 to 60 years, sadly the roads haven’t. On the journey to Blackburn it takes roughly the same journey time as in the late 1950s and recently, on a trip to Skipton the “ride” there and back left me feeling nauseous.

Jump on a train at Clitheroe and, in 20 minutes, you’re in Blackburn. Beats hands down the approximately 40 minutes by bus and it’s a lot cheaper as well.

Try catching a bus to Manchester from Clitheroe. You can still do it, but you need to go to Great Harwood to catch one. Hopefully, in future, we’re promised a half-hourly service by train, cheaper as well.

A future service to Skipton calling at Hellifield would take roughly the same as a “bone shaking” bus ride even though the route would be a little longer. It would probably be cheaper as well.

The roads around the area are only going to “clog up” even more as more houses are built, many of them with two or more cars on their driveways. Unless there are more railway infrastructure improvements in the near future attracting more people away from “gridlocked” local roads, the area will be reminiscent of Whalley at weekends in the late 1950s/early 1960s when every road regularly produced queues of traffic radiating two to two-and-a-half miles each way. What a prospect for the future.

G.A. Reynolds,

Bonnygrass, Woone Lane, Clitheroe.