The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-01 00:00:00

PRESTON AND ITS RAILWAYS.

The
avidity with which the inhabitants of Preston have
jirsea upon the swift modes of transit afforded hy railways is
own in the fact that there are now four lines of railway, in
active 'work, in connection With this town, and the traffic in
general has been satisfactory to the directors and sharehold-
er', and the prospects of each are considered as indicating a
great accession of business, and, of consequence, of profit to
lbe Proprietors. The North Union Railway was the first
.140 opened to the public in Preston, and it has not yet beeu
11,1 operation two years. The two dividends already paid to
toe shareholders, and the satisfactory report produced at the
late meeting in Liverpool, and since distributed to the share-
holders, sufficiently show the great success of this line. The
Preston arid Longridge Railway is of a different character to
most of the-lines opened in England, as no steam engines are
employed, and no locomotive power is required to work it in
that direction in which the heavy weights are to be conveyed.
The main object of this line is to bring down freestone from
Longridge Fell, where inexhaustible quarries of the finest
Quality of stone for building purposes may be opened. The
Lancaster and Preston Railway forms a link in the chain of
that line of communication between the metropolis and the
two great cities of Scotland, which the Royal Commissioners
have declared to be most worthy of government support. We
Saw in a Lancaster contemporary, a week or two ago, that it
was expe,,ted that the line from Preston to that town would
be one of the most lucrative in the kingdom. With less san-
guine hopes than our neighbour we yet trust that it will afford
a good return of interest upon the capital sunk in the under-
dertaking. It has the advantage of better gradients than
most other lines,and,has- been formed at much below the
average cost per mile. The last one opened, is the Preston
and Wyre Railway, and it is the one that has been, until its
opening, the most coolly looked upon. The main business
for which this line of railway was. laid, has not yet begun to
be transacted, and, as much depends upon the use made by
traders of the harbour of 'Wyre, we shall not speak upon this
branch of the company's revenue. There is one point, how-
ever, to which we must allude, as showing how mush more
the railway has been used for passengers than its promoters
anticipated. In the original prospectus the number of per-
la which the company calculated upon carrying, (exclusive
of those for Ireland and Scotland, arrangements for which
have not yet been made,) was, 15,000 annually. The num-
ber actually conveyed in the six weeks during which it has
been opened amounts to 30,079 !!
The facilities for visiting Fleetwood by bathers, and those
itinzioas to resort for a short time for the benefit of sea air,
ave stirred our neighbours of Lytham and Blackpool. To
"d from the latter place and the railway-station at Poulton,
_Omnibuses and coaches are daily running in connection with
the trains, and, in consequence, this fashionable watering-
place has been Crowded to such an extent, as to defy the
"!.toost exertions of the inhabitants to accommodate the
The disposition shewn by those confined in mann-
Meturing towns to take the advantage of a summer excursion
tt9 the sea side, when it can be done with so little loss of
„"ne, has, we have heard, determined the spirited inhabit-
iet3 of Blackpool to turn their attention to forming a branch
3,r°,111 the Wyre Railway-station at Poulton, to Blackpool,
at We hear that steps towards this object will be immedi-
elY taken. The number of visitors to Lytham this year,
for reasons
that will be apparent, has been made less than
httnerlY, and the diminution of sojourners to this village
v,_tt, We learn, called forth a determination that it shall not
‘.rvey 7 ltogether deserted. Arrangements are in progress for
g the line of country between Lytham and Kirkham,
l'taseertain the best line of communication between the Wyre
LB4.l,way and the former place. Both the Blackpool and the
Ythatn branches will pass over a country where the fre-
rentlY heavy expense of embankments, bridges, &c., will
gavoided, and the cost will of course be comparatively lght.
~noold these lines be executed, we shall then have the same
:leans of swift transit to the sea side—to the new town and
tadof Fleetwood, the pleasant watering-place of Blackpool,
t„u„the pretty nathing-village of Lytham—as we now have
w," Lue great seat of commerce, Liverpool, and the vast ern-
-I'l6ft of manufactures, Manchester. As the railway com-
munication between all these places will be complete, we
flay expect that the inhabitants of Manchester and the
!teighbourhood will the more frequently be tempted to avail
,7,lemselves of a healthful and pleasant trip to the sea side.
their'
new projects to which we have alluded are of course in
and infancy, but we shall not fail to mark their progress,
lay before our readers from time to time such particulars
may interest them.—Preston Chronicle.