M65 extension into Yorkshire

BobSykes · Post by **BobSykes** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 20:48

Calm down, it's very slim pickings this I know, but in an article in today's Burnley Express about bus price increases in Burnley and Pendle (yawn), some lentil-eating nutcase was quoted thus:

Mr Brian Jackson, of Pendle Friends of the Earth, said there will be more congestion on the roads as people are discouraged from using public transport by rising fares.
He said: "This will be the third increase in the last 18 months but they are still talking in Preston and Bradford about establishing the M65 link though Colne.
"If they can't afford to keep bus fares reasonable then how can they afford to build a motorway?"

Now putting to one side that he's obviously bonkers ("If they can't afford to keep bus fares reasonable then how can they afford to build a motorway?" - eh, the local bus company puts up the cash for building motorways now?), it did make me wonder whether there has been a call by Lancashire County Council and Bradford MBC for the scheme to extend the M65 to Kildwick to be resurrected?

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 20:53

Bob - this was printed in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about 2 or 3 years ago that the residents in Colne were fed up of the M65 ended on Vivary Way and they wanted it extending.

It is definately on Lancs' CC's wish list, along with widening Junctions 1A-6 to dual 3 lanes. One person was suggesting installing ATM on the motorway between J4-6 too...

That said, there was a very slow moving traffic jam on the road tonight between 6 and 5 westbound as I crossed over on the B6236 - although it quickly evaporated when I crossed back over on the B6231...

Polarbear · Post by **Polarbear** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 22:33

I don't wish to set alarm bells ringing, but they are up to something at J14 of the M65.

I drove past here last Sunday & there are definate signs of something being built there. It was dark though & there were no signs indicating any sort of road project, so may have just been contractors vehicles laid up there for something else.

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 22:42

It might be improvements to the roundabout and Vivary Way - I'm sure those have been pipelined for a while.

CJ · Post by CJ » Fri Jan 20, 2006 22:49

It's just improving access for a new retail park:
http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/ViewArticl ... ID=1321865

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 22:53

Oh, a retail park right on the proposed bloody line of the motorway.

Tossers.

M4Simon · Post by **M4Simon** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 23:09

Bryn666 wrote:That said, there was a very slow moving traffic jam on the road tonight between 6 and 5 westbound as I crossed over on the B6236 - although it quickly evaporated when I crossed back over on the B6231...

Your fault then?

Simon

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 23:36

Oh haha, very funny

BobSykes · Post by **BobSykes** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 00:07

Bryn666 wrote:Oh, a retail park right on the proposed bloody line of the motorway.

Tossers.

I'd forgotten about that. Yes, they are building some sort of access road in there. And apparently Vivary Way was closed again this afternoon for the second time in two days after an accident. Wonder if that was caused by mud on the road too?

I'm sure they could steer any extension round the new development though, as j14 would have to be completely redone anyway if they put the motorway through. Probably never going to happen though.

Roadtripper_Ian · Post by **Roadtripper_Ian** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 06:57

I know there has been an alignment planned straight across the roundabout and to the south of Colne. I'd have thought another alignment would be to leave the motorway just to the west of the roundabout, join the trackbed of the railway line and run to Skipton.

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 09:14

Roadtripper_Ian wrote:I know there has been an alignment planned straight across the roundabout and to the south of Colne. I'd have thought another alignment would be to leave the motorway just to the west of the roundabout, join the trackbed of the railway line and run to Skipton.

Where it would mee the M650?

BobSykes · Post by **BobSykes** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 13:53

There was talk of extending the M65 towards the A1 by following the railway alignment to Skipton and then I assume following the A65 down the Wharfe valley and coming out somewhere near Tadcaster. Can't believe that could have ever happened - what a destructive scheme that would have been. But some of the opponents of, say, the Addingham/Burley/Otley bypasses, and the shelved Ilkley bypass, argued that the bypasses of those places were motorway building by stealth, as upgrades would eventually come along to turn the A65 into the M65. (Simply giving the M65 that number was enough for some people I think)

Now, Pendle Council still has the trackbed reserved as far as the county boundary near Thornton in Craven for a possible A56 Foulridge/Earby/Thornton bypass, but Lancs CC isn't remotely interested in seriously backing the scheme. And the Lib Dems on Pendle Council forced a slight change to the policy to reserve the trackbed for "future transport use" as a result of pressure from the increasingly vocal sandal-wearing campaigners for a reopening of the Colne-Skipton rail link.

Neither the M65 nor A56 seems likely to ever be built on the trackbed, despite something being desperately needed there.

The most recent scheme for the M65, shelved formally in 1996, but to which the person quoted originally in this thread was alluding, was the scheme to take it through Colne's south valley, alongside the A6068 to Kildwick where it would link into the A629/A650 corridor (aka M650). I assume from the way the M65 was constructed as far as j14 that this was always the intended route. Whether it would have ended at Kildwick, or we would have ended up with a continuous motorway route throug the Aire Valley as far as Leeds I do not know.

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 19:51

I personally think that just a high standard S2 route east of J14 to the other side of Colne would be vast improvement on the North Valley Road, although still not ideal.

It certainly doesn't need to be a motorway, perhaps just all purpose dual carriageway.

C83 · Post by **C83** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 20:08

Well the current M65 does sort of jump out as an odd motorway, the towns along it, particularly after Burnley just don't seem big enough to justify a motorway. A backup crosspennine route seems more logical, though the (proposed) M67 route would likely complement the M62 better.

Pretty standard for the UK motorway network though, come up with an idea, build half of it, give up. If it does get finished I would imagine it will be as D2 expressway as that seems about the only way to get past the tree-huggers.

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 20:11

It looked even sillier when it was just junctions 6 to 14!

These days it's just a big spur, but it has boosted the economy of every town that it bypasses, so it's not a bad thing.

RickyB_uk · Post by **RickyB_uk** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 23:50

C83 wrote:Well the current M65 does sort of jump out as an odd motorway, the towns along it, particularly after Burnley just don't seem big enough to justify a motorway.

But a motorway is not just there for local traffic from towns along the route. Long-distance traffic (i.e. not originating directly on the route) must also be catered for.

Cambridge is not a particularly large city, much of the other towns backing onto the M11 are even smaller, but the M11 was built, and judging by traffic levels, it certainly is justified, even if most of the traffic is not originating or heading for destinations directly on the route.

BobSykes · Post by **BobSykes** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 00:11

Bryn666 wrote:It looked even sillier when it was just junctions 6 to 14!

Sillier still when it was in its original 1981 j10-12 form.

Bryn666 · Post by **Bryn666** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 00:41

Nah, don't be silly, it was a great road out of Burnley

Roadtripper_Ian · Post by **Roadtripper_Ian** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 07:17

Bryn666 wrote:Nah, don't be silly, it was a great road out of Burnley

Naah, it didn't go far enough.....

Ian198 · Post by **Ian198** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 19:03

Bryn666 wrote:Nah, don't be silly, it was a great road out of Burnley

Aren't they all?