Poulton le Fylde railway station

History

The original station was about 400 yards (400 m) north-east of the current location, at “The Breck”. The railway to the fishing town of Fleetwood passed along a straight line east of the town. From 1846, there was a junction to Blackpool just north of the station, with tight connecting curves facing either way. In 1893 a fatal accident occurred when a train took the curve too fast. Subsequently, in 1896, the tracks were realigned to follow a much gentler westward curve to Blackpool, with the new station halfway along the curve. The Fleetwood branch then curved to the east to rejoin the original alignment. The old station continued to be used as a goods station until 1968.

Passenger services to Fleetwood were withdrawn by British Rail on 1 June 1970 during railway restructuring, although a freight service continued to the ICI plant at Burn Naze Halt until 1999. The line is still extant, (albeit in a rusty & overgrown state and officially marked out of use). Since June 2006, there have been plans to restore (and preserve) the passenger rail link towards Fleetwood via Thornton & Cleveleys, as a heritage railway; a £30,000 feasibility study is needed to be undertaken to explore the re-instatement of the link and the addition of a third platform at Poulton-le-Fylde.

Facilities

The station has a manned ticket office at street level, staffed throughout the week (Monday to Saturday 06:10-19:30 and Sunday 06:40-18:10). There is also a self-service ticket machine provided for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There is a waiting room at platform level, along with toilets, bench seating and timetable posters. Train running information is offered via automatic announcements and digital display screens. Step-free access is available via lifts from the entrance to the platform when the ticket office is staffed.

Services

The station is now served by trains to and from Blackpool North and towards Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport; Manchester Victoria and to York via Blackburn and Leeds. All southbound routes have a basic hourly frequency; services to and from Hazel Grove via Manchester Piccadilly & Stockport also call during the morning & evening peak periods. Virgin Trains operates one train on weekdays between London Euston and Blackpool North.

Sundays see hourly services to Manchester Airport, Manchester Victoria, Liverpool Lime Street and York. The station is also served by a single DalesRail service to Carlisle via Settle during the summer months and to Hellifield (for onward travel to Settle & Carlisle) for the remainder of the year.

Grand Central has been given permission to run six trains a day from London to Blackpool North from 2018, which will call at Poulton-le-Fylde. The London terminus will be either Euston or Queen's Park, depending on network capacity during planned infrastructural work to the West Coast Mainline. Additional intermediate stations at which the service will stop are also dependent upon future capacity.

First TransPennine Express used to run the service from Manchester Airport to Blackpool North but this was passed on to the new Northern franchise on the 1st April 2016.