In recent years Burnley Manchester Road station has been upgraded and a new direct rail service to Manchester opened via the Todmorden Curve. This project will complete the station masterplan and will increase the overall accessibility of the station to all passengers.
Working with partner organisations Lancashire County Council and Network Rail, the development will deliver a new footbridge and passenger lifts, creating better connections between both platforms and the main station building, increasing accessibility to a wider range of destinations for a wider range of passengers.
£3.09 million Levelling Up Funding (LUF) has been secured for access improvements which will complete the transformation of Burnley Manchester Road Station as Burnley’s primary rail hub station providing fast train links to Manchester, Leeds and Preston. The funding will be used to provide a new footbridge and pedestrian linkages across to the west-bound platform connecting the new station’s ticket office and car park with direct access to the Preston/Blackpool platform.
Burnley Manchester Road station has been upgraded with the help of the European Union (Interreg IVB), Central Government Growth Deal, and local Council funding. The station now sports a new station building, a secure car park with CCTV and new Customer Information Screens and a brand-new rail service to Manchester via the £10m investment in re-opening (in 2015) the Todmorden Curve, enabling services to run directly between Manchester Victoria and Burnley Manchester Road for the first time in 40 years.
The station now serves 500,000 passengers per year. The role and function of the station has been transformed in recent years from a simple halt to a state-of-the-art facility which now provides a key gateway bringing people into Burnley directly from across Lancashire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and beyond.
However, access to the Preston and Blackpool bound platform is not currently compliant with the standards required of a modern-day station nor the 2010 Equality Act as it involves a circuitous 300 metre route from ticket office to platform involving steep pavement gradients, non-compliant ramps and exiting onto local highways. When complete, the project will provide a station that meets the expectations of the modern traveller and particularly those with luggage or prams or those with specific access requirements.
Detailed design and costs are currently being developed by Network Rail. Following the completion of site surveys and ground investigations the preferred option with be developed in more detail.