the rise and rise of the working class holiday team
[Blackpool history]
railways
In the early years, travel to Blackpool involved much discomfort, a journey from Manchester taking a day and one from Yorkshire taking two. The situation was transformed in 1840 when the Preston & Wyre Railway was built to serve Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood's proposed elegant port and watering place at the mouth of the river. However, the development of Fleetwood soon ground to a halt through lack of capital, and the railway -- then on the verge of collapse -- was only saved by cheap excursion trains from the industrial north, many of the trippers travelling on to Blackpool from Poulton station by horsebus or wagonette. When the railway reached Talbot Road station on 29 April 1846, the resort was scarcely prepared for the thousands of visitors from Lancashire and Yorkshire who could now reach it with comparative ease.
After World War II, the shift from rail to road continued, but even more markedly than before. Central station closed in 1964, giving space for the development of the Coral Island entertainment centre and courts complex, as well as releasing extensive areas for car and coach parking. In 1975, the M55 opened, allowing swift vehicle passage from the M6 to the borough boundary. The rebuilt Blackpool North station is now the principal railway terminus, with Blackpool South returning to the branchline status it had in early days. The new Pleasure Beach railway station opened in April 1987.
See also the map of the Lancashire coast and Blackpool, c.1840-50, showing the railways
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