page_title: Preston and Wyre Joint Railway
section_title: Traffic decline
hierarchical_section_title: Preston and Wyre Joint Railway / Traffic decline
caption_attribution_description: English: The site of Blackpool Central railway station which closed in 1964 and was demolished by 1973. The building and platforms covered almost all of the area in the bottom half of the picture, including the "Coral Island" building and the large car park behind it. The route of the dismantled railway tracks can be seen curving towards the top right of the picture. Photographed in 2009 from the top of Blackpool Tower.
context_page_description: The Preston and Wyre Railway was promoted to open up agricultural land in the Fylde in Lancashire, access a new port at what became Fleetwood and the Lancaster Canal at Preston: it opened in 1840. An associated company built the dock leading to the company changing its name to the Preston and Wyre Railway, Harbour and Dock Company. Passenger business was more buoyant than expected, and the company built branch lines to the nascent resort of Blackpool and Lytham that opened in 1846. At that time the line was leased by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and later the London and North Western Railway took a share in the lease which was later converted to outright ownership. The Preston and Wyre Railway continued o be jointly owned as the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway.
  The Blackpool and Lytham Railway built a line without making any junction with the Preston and Wyre railway in 1863. In 1871 it was taken into the Preston and Wyre group. Passenger traffic in connection with steamer sailings at Fleetwood continued throughout the 19th century and fishing was important but the huge expansion of Blackpool as a holiday and trippers' destination dominated the P&WR network.
context_section_description: Blackpool was an extraordinary phenomenon of British seaside holidays, and for decades the railways had struggled to handle the volume of passengers, and the number of train movements, although this was highly seasonal. Nevertheless, road motor coaches began to handle the traffic in increasing numbers after 1945, as distances from the Lancashire and West Yorkshire industrial towns were not great. The decline in railway business in an era of scepticism about financial loss-making on the railways meant that it was impossible to sustain the former levels of train service, and of infrastructure.
  Blackpool Central station was closed at the end of the 1964 Illuminations period, on 2 November, and the site was sold; trains on the coast line terminated at Blackpool South, and a few years later they were only shuttle services to and from Kirkham. The Fleetwood to Blackpool passenger service had finished in 1964. On 18 April 1966, the Fleetwood line was cut back to Wyre Dock.
  The New Line from Kirkham closed on 6 September 1965, although it was used for excursion trains until 13 February 1967. In 1970 the Euston-Blackpool services, which had hitherto travelled via Lytham, were diverted to the North station. In January 1974 this station was rebuilt on the site of the former excursion platforms, on a smaller scale to suit modern requirements.
  The south to west connection at Kirkham, which used part of the original Lytham branch, was closed in 1967, and the retained connection to Poulton old goods station was closed in 1968; the west curve on the new line at Poulton was closed in 1972.
  The passenger service between Fleetwood and Poulton ceased on 1 June 1970. The line remained open to chemical works at Burn Naze, but beyond that, Fleetwood and the docks were no longer rail-served. The entire branch from Poulton closed in 1992.
  In the 1970s and early 1980s the Blackpool South branch, as it had become, was singled, and the quadruple track between Preston and Kirkham was reduced to double track.
caption: The site of Blackpool Central railway station looking south; Blackpool South station can be seen in the background
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