Preston station cash secured

A long-planned new railway station for suburban Preston is finally set to get off the drawing board after the cash needed to build it was secured.

The blueprint for Cottam Parkway – a new boarding point on the line between Preston and Blackpool – first emerged more than a decade ago.

However, the vision for the station – which will spring up on land between Lea Road and Sidgreaves Lane in Lea – has been sitting in the sidings ever since.

Now, the Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) devolution body has allocated £28.2m to the project, plugging a funding gap first revealed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) last summer.

Work is set to start on the facility and its 250-space car park – hence the ‘parkway’ name – next year.

The LDRS understands the first services are expected to stop at the site in December 2030 – five years after the originally-estimated opening date.

When the station does finally welcome its first passengers, they will be able to enjoy journey times of just five minutes into Preston city centre and 20 minutes to Blackpool.

The South Fylde line stop – which will also offer a direct connection to Manchester – will serve a catchment area of around 17,000 people when it first opens and around 644,000 rail journeys per year are expected to start or end there.

The LCCA, which is now Lancashire’s sole transport authority, agreed the funding for the station at a meeting on Tuesday. It takes the total budget for the project to £56.6m – more than double the £24m it was previously costed at in 2020.

The government announced in July 2025 that it was allocating £28.4m to Lancashire County Council to deliver the scheme, subject to approval of a business case.

However, as the LDRS established at the time, the bill had, by that point, soared to more than £55m – in large part because of inflation – leaving it heading towards the buffers as a result of the shortfall.

The LCCA cash now awarded to Cottam Parkway has been drawn from the £643m the organisation will receive as part of its “consolidated” transport settlement from the government for the period 2026/27 to 2029/30, which has been allocated to a total of 20 schemes.

Cllr Phil Riley, chair of the combined authority’s transport advisory board – and leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council – said at the meeting where the decision was made that the station was a “really significant development”.

In a statement issued to the LDRS, he added: “This is a major milestone for one of Lancashire’s most important transport projects.

“Cottam Parkway has the potential to transform rail connectivity for thousands of residents, support new homes and jobs and unlock economic growth across Preston and Central Lancashire.

“By approving this funding contribution, we’re investing in the infrastructure Lancashire needs to support its future growth and prosperity.”

Although an LCCA project, the station will be delivered by Lancashire County Council, which will be asked to add the funding to its capital programme at a cabinet meeting next week.

The business case on which the scheme still hinges is expected to be approved by the government later this month, while the majority of the required land – a 14.5-hectare greenfield plot – is now in public control.

Planning permission was granted exactly three years ago, with an unusual five-year window set for the period within which work had to begin. If the more common three-year time limit had been ordered, the permission would have lapsed this month and meant the planning process had to be restarted.  At the time of the approval, a 2025 opening date was deemed possible.

Hannah Clarke, from project sponsor Network Rail, said after the funding had been confirmed: “We’re delighted to be continuing our work with Lancashire County Council to develop plans for Cottam Parkway, a new station that will provide better rail connections for local communities, with direct links to Blackpool, Manchester and Preston.

“Securing this funding is an important milestone for the scheme – and we’re looking forward to taking the project into its next phase.”

Cottam Parkway was first mooted as part of Lancashire County Council’s 2013 Central Lancashire Highways and Transport Masterplan.

The facility will provide a transport option for the more than 6,000 homes expected to be built in Cottam and North West Preston over the 20-year period between the mid-2010s and mid-2030s.

A previous station off Lea Road closed back in 1938.

According to the planning permission granted for Cottam Parkway, the facility will feature:

***a station building with ticket hall, passenger waiting area, toilets, staffroom and plant room – the structure measuring 27 metres by eight and standing 5.4 metres tall;

***two single-facing platforms, 210 metres long and able to accommodate eight-carriage trains, with passenger waiting shelters;

***an 11-metre tall station footbridge and associated stairs and lifts to enable level platform-to-platform access, along with a secondary means of escape from the platforms;

***a surface-level car park with 250 spaces, including electric vehicle charging points for at least 38 of them, and the possibility of adding a further 55 spaces at ground level or creating an additional 134 parking spots by constructing a single-decked multi-storey facility;

**bus stop bays within the central forecourt, next to the station building, to accommodate local bus services.

***an access road cutting across Sidgreaves Lane – where a new T-junction is planned – and continuing east, parallel to the new station car park, culminating in a turning area for station pick-up and drop-off;

***a segregated cycle track and footpath along a section of the existing Sidgreaves Lane and over the Quaker Bridge, linking into Preston’s local cycle network on the Preston Western Distributor Road and along Darkinson Lane.