New train times to Blackpool attractions will take just 20 minutes

A new train station that will offer 20-minute journey times to Blackpool is set to be built in Lancashire. Long-awaited plans for the Cottam Parkway have now been approved.

Lancashire County Council’s development control committee approved the proposed facility, which will offer passengers five-minute journey times into Preston city centre and 20-minute travel times to Blackpool. However, the boarding point could yet be stuck in the sidings for five years if the £24m scheme gets bogged down in land ownership wrangles.

Committee members heard that the county council itself – as the authority behind the project – had requested to be given until 2028 to start construction work, in case compulsory purchase orders were needed to acquire all of the necessary land. When the planning application was submitted last October, the indication was that building would begin soon after permission was granted and take around 18 months to complete – meaning that the first passengers could have been hopping on and off trains at the site during the winter of 2024/25.

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While it is far from certain that the timetable will be subject to such a severe delay as that now permitted, it does at least raise the possibility of the station not coming into operation until the end of the decade. Doubts have also been raised over whether the facility will ultimately include the ticket office that has been designed into the plans.

Since the blueprint for Cottam Parkway was first drawn up, a controversial proposal from the rail industry has suggested shutting almost all of England’s 1,000 full and part-time ticket booths. A consultation into the