MOVES to encourage more people to use our railways have culminated in plans for a new station in Blackburn and a makeover for Burnley Central. But do improvements need to be made to the services and the lines before we let the train take the strain? Chief reporter DAVID HIGGERSON investigates. . .

DRIVE past the front of Blackburn Railway Station at 8.45am most weekday mornings and you could be forgiven for thinking everyone is using the train.

But look more closely at the hundreds of people spilling out across Railway Road towards the town centre and one thing becomes very clear: most of them are students.

Very few of those travelling in from Darwen, Hyndburn, Burnley and beyond appear to be office workers.

In other words, those who have a choice about travelling into work, still choose to go by car.

It's a situation both Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council - the two local authorities with responsibility for improving public transport - are acutely aware of.

To that end, they've set about making improvements. In Lancashire, Burnley Central Station is getting a big makeover, while improvements are planned at smaller stations such as Church and Oswaldtwistle.

In Blackburn, the town centre station was overhauled in a project worth £6million. And this week, it was revealed that the council has secured the £2.3million needed to build a railway station at Greenbank, in the heart of the business district.

Greenbank and Whitebirk estates are enjoying a massive boom in popularity, while plans are at an advanced stage for the new Lantern business park nearby. Creating a new stop will, in theory, make it easier for workers to switch to public transport.

It's the same theory which prompted Lancashire County Council to invest in Church and Oswaldtwistle station. By improving the station, perhaps many of the thousands of people who visit the neighbouring Oswaldtwistle Mills will start to come by train instead.

"If you look at what we have done with buses, then it should work," said Jean Yates, the Lancashire county councillor in charge of transport. "We have several quality bus routes where we improved the buses, improved the stops and improved the reliability, and the number of people using them went up.

"It is a lot easier to improve bus routes though and the situation we have now is that people catch a nice bus from a nice bus stop to a train station, look around and don't like what they see. We need to work on that."

It's at this point that the complex franchise process for the railway network suddenly becomes important. Lancashire County Council has boasted a good working relationship with First North-Western, which currently runs all local services, such as the Manchester to Clitheroe route and the Blackpool South to Colne services. But they lost the franchise earlier this year.

The new company, Serco/Ned, has pledged to improve the existing services when it takes over in the next couple of months, but has no new plans for new trains. Therefore, people switching from cars to train when the new Greenbank station opens in 2006 face travelling on aging 'Pacer' trains - dubbed the most uncomfortable to travel by the Rail Passenger Committee.

Coun Yates added: "We do plan to talk to the new operator soon. We've heard what they said about concentrating on what they already have, but hopefully they'll want to make an impression."

Robin Sisson, communications co-ordinator for the RPC, said: "To get more people on to the trains, then the actual trains have to be improved. It is disappointing Serco are talking about not bringing in new rolling stock.

"The Pacer trains which run from Blackpool to Colne aren't comfortable and they do need refurbishing if people are to be attracted to the train from their car."

There is also concern at Serco's apparent lack of interest in developing new services.

"We want to concentrate on what we have already," said a spokesman. "We aren't planning new rolling stock."

That isn't what Ribble Valley Rail, the user group for the Clitheroe- Manchester line, want to hear. They are fighting to get the service extended to Hellifield, opening up much of the Ribble Valley to rail users.

Ron Birch, from RVR, said: "Around 200,000 journeys are made on the Ribble Valley line every year now, and before the line re-opened in 1994 those journeys would have been by car. To get more people off the road, you need to offer more services, which is why we want the route extended to Hellifield."

Councils like Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire certainly have their work cut out getting more people off the road.

Figures from Blackburn with Darwen Council show that the number of passenger journeys by train to and from Blackburn station fell from 819,270 to 801,769 between 2001 and 2002.

Coun Andy Kay, in charge of regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "We're constantly trying to improve public transport, including the railways. At Blackburn Railway Station, we will soon operate a park and ride, and we constantly work to try and make our smaller stations more appealing.

"We believe the Greenbank station will become a well-used stop, linked with buses, to make it easier for people to use public transport."