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
East Lancashire Railway (1844–1859) the Blackburn to Accrington connection (), and, in August, the Stubbins junction to Accrington section. The line was extended east to Burnley () by September 1848, and, in February 1849, from Burnley to Colne, where it made an end-on junction with the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway, providing the ELR with a connection to Bradford and Leeds. The LO&PR line to Lostock Hall () was completed on 2 April 1849, and the () extension into Preston station opened on 2 September 1850. The line ran into new platforms built on the east side of the NUR's station, which were managed