Moves to reinstate a railway linking Southport with Ormskirk and Preston have been snubbed by Network Rail in its vision for the region's train travel.

A study looking into how to improve rail links between the North West cities, released last week as part of a £530m investment from Network Rail to improve travel across the North of England, makes reccomendations of several projects across the North West but omits any mention of the campaign to bring back the Buscough Curves, which would connect both towns with each other and the Lancashire city.

“Network Rail have missed out on something that would greatly benefit this part of the North West, as it would have joined Southport and Ormskirk by rail, as well as joining both up with cities beyond that. It's a shame it hasn't been considered in this study,” said Sefton council and Merseytravel committee member David Sumner.

“We will continue to campaign for the Burscough Curves through the Local Transport Plan, and hopefully we will still see this important rail link reinstated in the near future.”

The Network Rail Northern Hub Study, released last week, makes a number of reccomendations for the North West region, including direct links between Liverpool and Bradford for the first time, but the majority of the proposals are concentrated in the Greater Manchester area to improve links to and from that city.

“Most of the railway in the North was built in the 19th Century by a number of competing companies. Unlike today, there was no single company like Network Rail responsible for planning the rail network,” said Network Rail in the study.

“In the 1960s and 1970s, with fewer people travelling by rail, many lines in the North were axed. However, more people now choose to travel by rail than at any time since 1945, and increasing amounts of freight are transported across the North. This growth is expected to continue over the next 20 to 30 years and beyond.”

Campaigns to bring back the Burscough Curves, a half mile stretch of abandoned track which would link the Southport to Manchester and Ormskirk to Preston lines together, have already attracted the support of West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper and Southport MP John Pugh, as well as members of both Sefton Council and West Lancashire Borough Council.

Along with linking the two towns to Preston, any Burscough Curves work would also raise the possibility of bringing towns on Merseyrail's Ormskirk branch line, including Maghull and Aintree, into a direct rail link with Preston.

Councillor Sumner has also launched a petition on the Downing Street website to garner regional support for the Burscough Curves. To sign it visit the petitions website at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BurscoughCurves.

By David Simister