About Us

The Poulton & Wyre Railway Society (PWRS) was formed by a dedicated group of railway enthusiasts who, in April 2006, got together in order to gain support and bring political pressure to re-open the disused railway line (see the line) from Poulton-le-Fylde to Fleetwood in Lancashire.

The Story of the PWRS

Our goal was to raise public awareness and to secure the long term future of the railway either as a heritage railway or by it being reinstated as part of Network Rail (NR).

Our mission was to enable the re-opening of the railway line and to work with NR, local authorities, community partnerships and local businesses to restore an operational rail service in order to bring potentially great benefits to the community and to help bring about the regeneration of Fleetwood and Thornton.

First Steps

PWRS obtained a licence from the NR Community Scheme in 2008 to allow them to access the former station and track at Thornton, to clear vegetation and rubbish from what was an eyesore in the middle of the village centre.

Our aim was to firstly restore Thornton station and then clear the railway line from Poulton to Fleetwood. Subsequently, due to the success of the volunteers, access was gradually extended to clear the entire line including Burn Naze station.

We also began to carry out negotiations with the relevant authorities, the priority being to secure the support of Wyre Council (WC) and Lancashire County Council (LCC) to commit to the long term future of the railway.

Council Support

A report was commissioned by WC which demonstrated that it was possible to restore a commuter service and following this, a more detailed review by NR at the request of the transport authority, LCC was completed and subsequently a costed Business Plan was developed by PWRS in conjunction with both the WC and LCC.

It was agreed at that time, to push forward with a heritage railway plan, but also support NR, if they ever decided to upgrade the line as a part of the national network.

We then led the volunteer work that resulted in the majority of the disused rail corridor being cleared and the station at Thornton being being restored.

The Society then started to collect and restore a fine collection of historical railway artefacts, locomotives and carriages for possible future use on the line, whilst continuing to work with the politicians in order to seek support for the re-opening of the line.

Austerity Bites

Unfortunately, due to the austerity measures following the 2008 financial crisis, the councils were unable to provide any further support or financial input and the Society, therefore, then initiated a new Business Plan.

Again for the establishment of a heritage railway, in phases, and using private funding if it could be raised.

Restoring Your Railway Fund

As a result of the PWRS continuing to campaign for the re-opening of the Fleetwood line, it was included near the top of a list of disused railways that could easily be re-opened in order to re-generate areas, which was put forward by NR at the request of the UK Government.

In November 2019 the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson visited the PWRS at Thornton station and pledged, in the event of electoral success, to make funding available from a "Beeching Reversal Fund" to undertake a feasibility study into the potential re-opening of the Fleetwood railway line.

This was followed by a visit from the Secretary for State for Transport to Fleetwood in January 2020 where the establishment of a £500m Restoring Your Railway (RYR) fund with the specific purpose of re-opening closed railways and stations was announced.

This fund included the facility for local authorities and other sponsors to submit early stage proposals for reopening lines and stations, with successful applicants receiving grants to undertake the development of feasibility and business case work.

On this basis LCC, with the support of a number of key stakeholders including Blackpool Transport, WC, Fleetwood Town Council and the PWRS, successfully applied to the RYR fund to undertake a feasibility study for the re-opening of the Fleetwood branch line.

The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, then provided the funding and in October 2020 Atkins were appointed by LCC to undertake an early stage feasibility and business case assessment of the scheme, with the key aim being to present a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) consistent with the RYR guidance.

Strategic Outline Business Case

The SOBC set out the underlying objectives of the scheme, and made a strategic case for further investment based on how the scheme was able to deliver against those objectives.

It additionally established whether re-opening the branch line was likely to be technically feasible and economically viable.

The key decision being sought within the SOBC was whether the proposed scheme was able to meet the objectives and whether any of the options were worthy of more detailed development in order to take the scheme forward to the next stage.

The study was completed in 2021 and forwarded to the Department for Transport, who considered that the scheme should go forward.

Delay, Cancellation and Hope

Sadly, the next stage of the process, which was for NR to produce a detailed plan of work, was delayed in the aftermath of Covid due to lack of available funding.

The RYR scheme was then subsequently cancelled in 2024 by the incoming Labour government.

The project is unfortunately now in abeyance, but is still supported by the local MP, LCC and Transport for the North and is intended to be submitted for consideration of future government approval and funding.

Heritage Railway Centre

As a result, we therefore had to reset our future aspirations of operating a heritage service and concentrate on our restoration projects.

Thus, we have initiated new objectives for the PWRS to develop, over time, a small heritage railway centre located on a new permanent site on the Hillhouse Business Park Enterprise Zone in Thornton which will allow access to the public and be adjacent to the railway line.

We are included in the enterprise zone's plans and have been allocated a plot located next to the railway corridor.

We have already been acknowledged, within the railway re-opening Feasibility study, which stated that:

The PWRS, as well as having led the work that has resulted in the majority of the disused rail corridor being cleared and the station at Thornton being restored, has ambitions to showcase its heritage. PWRS has amassed a collection of rolling stock and equipment that it wishes to display in a permanent museum on or adjacent to the railway, including some form of test track. There are definite opportunities for the reinstated railway to accommodate heritage facilities as the rail corridor is wide enough for twin-track railway for the majority of its length. It is therefore reasonable to consider that PWRS's aspirations can be accommodated.

Therefore we hope also to obtain a strip of land alongside the Northern Properties Ltd (NPL) boundary surplus to the railway's requirements on which to have a length of track and a rolling stock storage facility.

The Society are presently located on a plot of land within the secure part of the Hillhouse Business Park which is owned by NPL at Thornton.

We are accommodated in several containers and a large temporary building, with the rolling stock being kept outside, some under temporary cover.

Whilst this situation is somewhat unsatisfactory, we have been promised that the land will not be required for redevelopment for a number of years and hopefully the new site will be available for us before this.

Watch this space!