Burnley is located in the east of Lancashire, in the north west of England, lying 11 miles east of Blackburn and 25 miles north of Manchester at the centre of Pennine Lancashire.

The Burnley borough has an area of 11,070 hectares (42 square miles), but nearly two-thirds of this is countryside – the town is surrounded by hills and moorland and is located in a hollow where the River Calder and River Brun meet.

Road

Burnley has excellent uncongested high-speed road networks – the M65 offers fast, direct connections to:

• the M60 and M66 to/from Manchester
• the M6 and M65 to/from thePrestonarea and the coastal resorts; and,
• the M62 or A646 to/from Leeds

Leading regional hauliers Fagan & Whalley take advantage of these network routes, operating transport services from their base inBurnley.

Approximate distances & drive times:

Edinburgh            208 miles      4 hrs

London                 240 miles      4 hrs

Blackburn            11 miles        20 mins

Preston                25 miles        35 mins

Manchester         28 miles        45 mins

Liverpool              52 miles        70 mins

Leeds                   60 miles        65 mins

Birmingham         125 miles      2 hrs

Rail

Rail services to and from Burnley are provided by Norhern Rail.  The town is served by two railway stations, Burnley Manchester Road and Burnley Central.  Burnley Manchester Road operates services west to Preston and Blackpool and east to Leeds and York, whilst Burnley Central provides local services west to Blackpool and Preston (where all trains to major destinations in the country can be caught) and east to Nelson and Colne.

Todmorden Curve

Plans for future investment in the rail network will see a direct 45 minute service to Manchester city centre operational from as early as 2013.  The investment involves the re-instatement of 400m of track to the northwest of  Todmorden (the Todmorden Curve) that will allow a rail service from Manchester Victoria via Rochdale and Todmorden to Burnley Manchester Road. These proposals also include a new and improved station building for Manchester Road Station alongside improved parking facilities.

Air

Burnley benefits from the proximity of four international airports, all of which are within approximately one hours drive.

Manchester Airport (42 miles)

Manchester International Airport is the UK’s third largest airport (the largest outside of London), handling over 22 million passengers a year to over 200 destinations.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport (55 miles)

Liverpool is one of the UK’s oldest airports and in recent years it had been one of Europe’s fastest growing airports now serving over 5 million passengers a year.

Regular scheduled services are currently available to 69 domestic and European destinations.

Blackpool Airport (44 miles)

Blackpool airport has recently completed a £2m investment to refurbish their passenger terminal improving the facilities offered to passengers flying to and from over 25 European destinations.

Leeds-Bradford International Airport (LBIA) (38 miles)

LBIA is one of the UK’s fastest growing airports, now handling over 2 million passengers per annum and provides access to over 70 domestic, European and international destinations.

 Media Access Bureaux – Fast Broadband connections

UCLan’s Media Access Bureaux (MAB), based at the Burnley campus, provides a high speed telecommunication link with transfer speeds that are 20 times faster than the average FTP and can transfer 1GB of data in 1 min 20 seconds.  The Burnley MAB forms part of a network of facilities across the Northwest and provides editing suites, high speed internet upload capacity, and direct video conferencing to the MAB network, providing Burnley businesses with access to the latest technology to link them into businesses across the North and into Media City.