Plans for £24m Preston rail station approved

The suburban station will feature a footbridge and a 248-space car park

Plans for a new £24m railway station in Preston has been approved by councillors.

The Cottam Parkway facility will offer five-minute journeys to Preston city centre and 20-minute trips to Blackpool.

However it is not clear when construction will start due to land ownership issues.

Councillors expect the station will begin operating for passengers before 2030 at the latest.

It also unclear if the station will host a ticket office, after a public consultation over a controversial nationwide plan to close the booths received 680,000 responses.

The facility will feature two platforms that can accommodate eight-carriage trains, along with passenger shelters, a footbridge, lifts and a 248-space car park.

A new access route will also be built off a roundabout from the recently-opened Cottam Link Road.

About 500,000 journeys could start or end at the station annually.

Planning permissions usually require construction to begin within three years of approval.

However the process for compulsory purchase orders - should they be needed - could be "lengthy" and delay construction, a Lancashire County Council meeting heard.

The plans for Cottam Parkway date back a decade but could only go ahead after Lancashire was delegated £22.3m from the government's Transforming Cities Fund in 2019.

A further £2.1m has been contributed by the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal.

Lancashire County Council said they hoped the station would "encourage a shift in journeys from road to rail" and "help to reduce traffic at key congestion hotspots on Preston's road network".