Lancashire four universities: Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the Lancaster campus of the University of Cumbria. Seven colleges offer higher education courses. The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6 motorway which runs from north to south, past Lancaster and Preston. The M55 connects Preston to Blackpool and is 11.5 miles (18.3 km) long. The M65 motorway from Colne, connects Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn to Preston. The M61 from Preston via Chorley and the M66 starting inside the county boundary near Edenfield, provide links between Lancashire and Manchester] and the trans-Pennine M62. The M58 crosses the
Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway The Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway, opened in 1846, ran between the towns of Clifton and Bury in what is now Greater Manchester, and the district of Rossendale in Lancashire, England. The company merged with the Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington & Colne Extension Railway (BBA&CER) to form the East Lancashire Railway. In the early 1840s the nearest railway to Bury was the Manchester and Bolton Railway, at its closest through Stoneclough almost 4.5 miles distant. This railway company had initially proposed to create a branch to Bury, but technical difficulties meant that the connection never materialised.