New late night rail services to Blackpool and Preston announced for Lytham Festival 2026
“We are absolutely delighted Northern Rail have agreed to put extra services on this year.”
A new late night rail service is being introduced for this year’s Lytham Festival.
Northern Rail has committed to introducing more late night trains to Blackpool and Preston on the closing night of the five-day TK Maxx-sponsored event on Sunday, July 5.
Hopes are high that if it proves popular it will be rolled out across every night of the festival in years to come.
Festival organisers have long lobbied Northern Rail, with support from Fylde MP Andrew Snowden, to increase transport during the festival.
This year’s additional services on the Sunday evening will see trains departing Lytham at 22:58 towards Blackpool South and at 23.36 towards Preston. Passengers wishing to travel to Blackpool North can change at Kirkham.
Lytham Festival returns for its 15th anniversary from Wednesday July 1 to Sunday July 5 with headliners Teddy Swims, Alanis Morissette, Michael Bublé, Pet Shop Boys and Pitbull.
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With more than 100,000 people expected to descend on the Fylde coast for the event, organisers have been working to ensure customers’ travel plans are made as simple as possible, whatever their preferred mode of transport.
In addition to the increase in rail services, plans include:
Festival Flyer buses operating dedicated return journeys between Blackpool and Lytham, and Preston and Lytham
The Big Green Coach offering sustainable coach travel to and from points across the North West
Park and Ride in St Annes with a dedicated bus service
A pickup and drop off point at Lowther Pavilion for both private cars and taxis.
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Festival co-founder Peter Taylor said: “We are absolutely delighted Northern Rail have agreed to put extra services on this year.
“Comprehensive traffic and travel plans are a vital part of event planning to ensure everyone has the best possible experience and in recent years we have introduced a very successful and popular Park & Ride facility in St Annes, Festival Flyer buses running to and from both Blackpool and Preston, as well as working with local taxi firms to offer a dedicated drop off and pickup point.
“These are all very well used services and work incredibly well, but many customers also want to use trains and therefore it has been frustrating that we have not had increased numbers of later trains for customers who don’t want to have to either miss the end of a concert or risk missing their train by staying to the end.
“This year Northern Rail are going some way to ease this by introducing an extra service running in both directions on the Sunday evening and we hope this will be rolled out even further in the future to cover the full five days of the festival.”
Andrew Snowden MP said: “This is a positive first step in our campaign to get more trains running on the South Fylde line, and I want to put on record my thanks to the organisers of Lytham Festival for helping me make the case and working with Northern to get these extra services in place.
“Supporting major events like Lytham Festival and the upcoming Open Golf Championship means making it easier for people to get here and get home again. Increasing train frequency is a big part of that.
“But we need to think long term too. I will continue making the case to Government Ministers for the South Fylde passing loop, which would effectively double capacity on this line and deliver lasting improvements for residents and visitors alike.”
More information, final tickets and traffic and travel plans are available at lythamfestival.com