Press Cutting – All aboard for the fun park (1987)

BLACKPOOL GAZETTE

FRIDAY APRIL 10, 1987

British Rail's latest station will open on Monday when the first trains will call at the £110,000 Blackpool Pleasure Beach. And good news for travellers on the South Fylde line is that a Sunday service is to be restored to the line from April 19 as the giant amusement park opens its roller coasters for the 1987 holidaymakers. The speed at which British Rail has carried out the work has delighted Pleasure Beach officials.

Company secretary David Cam said "The initial meeting was held in January 1986 and by that time British Rail, Blackpool Borough Council and ourselves were 100 percent behind the project. We are most grateful to British Rail for having taken up the challenge with such enthusiasm to bring Blackpool the distinction of having the first leisure park in the country with its own British Rail station", he added.

The county provided £10,000, British Rail pumped in £20,000, the borough council £2,000, with the Pleasure Beach funding the remaining £78,000 towards the station's cost.

British Rail's lightweight Pacer diesel units will serve the unstaffed station en route from Kirkham to Blackpool South. Pleasure Beach managing director Geoffrey Thompson reckons the project will bring British Rail an extra £100,000 in revenue in its first year.

British Rail's North West provincial manager Mike Anderson said: "This is a shining example of British Rail working together with local authorities and private enterprise for the benefit of our customers."