PLANS to run express train services through East Lancashire - using Blackburn Station en-route - have been shelved after rail bosses were told there wasn't enough room to squeeze them in.

Virgin Trains had wanted to divert its services via Blackburn, up the Ribble Valley line and on to the Settle-Carlisle line at weekends until repair work on the West Coast Mainline in Lancashire and Cumbria was complete.

Their plan included picking up passengers on some of the services - which run to Scotland from London - at Blackburn, giving East Lancashire access to the intercity trains on a regular basis.

But when Virgin submitted a request for permission to use that diversion, Network Rail, the Government-owned company which owns track infrastructure, said no to all but a handful of the services.

Virgin has instead had to lay on coaches, meaning passengers travelling from the south have to get off at Preston, get on a bus, then get back on the train at Carlisle - stopping at Lancaster, Oxenholme and Penrith on the way!

A spokesman for Virgin said: "We would have preferred to run along the diversionary route, which would have taken trains via Blackburn, along the Ribble Valley line to Hellifield and then on to the Settle to Carlisle line - but we were told that this wouldn't be possible because too many other operators wanted to use the route, particularly the Settle to Carlisle stretch of the line.

"This included a lot of freight operators.

"In the past, when there have been diversions along this route, we have been able to use it and have stopped at Blackburn.

"It's what we wanted to do but hasn't been possible."

Today, a passengers' group said more signals on the stretch of track would have allowed Virgin to run its trains through Blackburn.

Peter Moore, chairman of the Ribble Valley rail user group, said: "If there were more signals along our line, then more trains would be able to use it.

"Put simply, poor planning and poor investment has meant we have an unsophisticated signal network.

"Network Rail needs to invest in this line, put in more signals, so that it can be continued to be used as a diversionary route from the West Coast line.

" It seems the only loser here is the passenger."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "There were several reasons, one of which was the fact we would have had too many trains on the diversionary route as well."

Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "This news is disappointing."