There are no passengers to exclaim at their prettiness – just the kids over the road at Baines Endowed,
shoppers at Somerfield, and early doors drinkers at the Bay Horse pub.
The Fleetwood line which once brought people here lost its
passenger services in 1970, four years after its main railway station, on Queen's Terrace, closed. Freight trains ran until the late 1990s. Dr Beeching's rail reforms meant the end of many other lines back in the '60s – towns and villages still smarting from the loss decades on.
Not that we can blame Beeching.
He recommended that Blackpool North be closed and the Central and Fleetwood lines be retained.
Instead the British Rail board struck a redevelopment deal with the council, which wanted shut of
Central Station from the prime site.
Blackpool rail historian Barry McLoughlin says the £1m deal was dubbed the Sale of the Century – and much of the site still has yet to redeveloped to its potential.
There's no hope of restoring
Central's lost glory days but Poulton and Wyre Railway Society volunteers are steaming on with a revival campaign for the historic Fleetwood route.
For three years, the project's
organisers have meticulously sowed the seeds of the scheme – which could cost up to £15 million – and nurtured it.
The 200-strong PWRS – which includes several former and current railwaymen – has laid a realistic foundation for reopening.
It has close links with Network Rail, borough and county councils, NPL Estates – owner of Hillhouse
International Business Park – and train operator Northern Rail.
Now the once valued passenger and freight link is among 14 new lines and 40 new stations identified by the Association of Train
Operating Companies as ripe for restoration to the main rail network.
The report suggests new stations could be built at Thornton and Fleetwood, the existing (if overgrown) track used for most of the route, with only a small section reconstructed between Burn Naze and Fleetwood.
The report gives heavyweight clout to the campaign to re-establish the route – and ATOC is undertaking further research with train operators, Network Rail and local authorities.
It's described as "massive" news, by Wyre Council leader, Coun Russell Forsyth, while John Goy, chairman of PWRS, hails it: "An opportunity for commuters and tourists."
It's come too late to save some once cherished stations and lines –
developed for woodland walks, industrial estates, roads and giant car parks elsewhere.
Oh, Dr Beeching, what did you do? Years on the legacy of the hatchet man of our rail network endures in small branch lines in quiet corners of England, sleepers ripped up, tracks overgrown, platforms
standing like ghosts.
He shut 2,000 stations, axed 500 miles of track, and isolated once main-line communities, a few of whom have reappeared as heritage lines.
But these blithe spirits could be set to rise anew – and have the last laugh on the rail revisionist who thought their day was done.
And that could prove just the ticket to ride anew on lines linked across the Fylde.
ATOC says the £500m expansion, if approved, could re-use lines closed under the '60s Beeching cuts, and serve more than one million extra passengers, within 10 years.
Any decisions on future expansion rest with government and Network Rail.
The rain renaissance is already seen, locally, in the Community Rail Partnership for the South Fylde branch, infrastructure and rolling stock improvements to Blackpool North-Preston route, and the £101 million modernisation of the coastal tramway.
One prime candidate for a station reopening is Wrea Green, closed pre-Beeching, in 1961, but now a busy dormitory town.
Atoc chief executive Michael Roberts explains: "This is the first study to look at the market, not the map, analysing where people live and where they want to travel.
"Much of the current debate about improving the network is focused on major enhancements, such as main line electrification and potential high speed lines.
"Record passenger numbers and rising demand require us to plan for the long term. There is a strong business case for investment to bring a number of towns back on to the rail network. Some 40 towns not currently on the rail network could benefit from the 14 new lines. Now we need to safeguard these routes and develop the detailed case for investment."
Barry McLoughlin (pictured), author of five books on the Fylde's railways and trams, says the Fylde is at the
forefront of Britain's rail reopening plans. "The boldly ambitious
proposals to reinstate the line between Poulton and Thornton, and then on to Fleetwood, would be a
catalyst for economic regeneration along the entire corridor, coupled with housing and industrial
development, including proposals for the former ICI Hillhouse site.
"It would have huge potential in both commuter and tourist terms, in addition to freight.
"The plan to revive the line between Poulton, Thornton, Burn Naze and Fleetwood would have huge resonances for rail history in Britain. Track is still in place as far as Jameson Road bridge, north of Burn Naze, about 4.7 miles from Poulton. Part of the proposal would be to re-lay track all the way to
Fleetwood and build a new station, possibly near the Freeport shopping complex, in the area of the former Wyre Dock station.
"Next year will be 170 years since Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood's line to his port and new town became one of the world's first tourist railways."
* Barry features the Fylde's rail
revival in the current issue of RAIL magazine, and within his latest book, The Railways of Blackpool and the Fylde, Volume 2, published by the Nostalgia Collection at £17.99. ISBN: 978 1 85794 315 3.

jacqui.morley@blackpoolgazette.co.uk