Blackburn railway station serves the town of Blackburn in Lancashire, England. It is east of Preston and is managed and served by Northern Trains. History There has been a station on the current site since 1846, when the Blackburn and Preston Railway (a constituent company of the East Lancashire Railway) was opened - the contract to build the station having been awarded in November 1845. This route was extended eastwards to in March 1848 and subsequently through to Burnley and by February 1849. Meanwhile, the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe & West Yorkshire Railway had built a line through to from the town by 1848, but were refused permission to use the ELR station and had to open their own station at Bolton Road, a short distance south of the junction between the two. The Blackburn company subsequently extended their line northwards along the Ribble Valley to in 1851, but it was not until both railways had amalgamated with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway that traffic was concentrated at the main station (the Bolton Road station closing in 1859). The first of two major upgrades to the facilities came the following year, but the opening of the Lancashire Union Railway from and in 1869, the Great Harwood Loop in 1877 and the extension of the Clitheroe line to in 1880 to give the L&Y a through route to Scotland via the Settle-Carlisle Line led to significant increases in traffic that put the station under major strain. A fatal collision there that led to the deaths of 7 people in 1881 prompted the L&Y to make plans for another expansion & remodelling project, which was completed between 1886 & 1888. The new station had two island platforms, each with west-facing bays to give seven working faces in total plus an impressive two-bay overall roof. Destinations served included via , , , and via the West Lancashire Railway in addition to those mentioned previously. Long distance through coaches to Scotland and London Euston (via Manchester Victoria, and ) also operated from here well into British Rail days. The 1923 Grouping saw the station pass into the hands of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, but it was not until after nationalisation in 1948 that traffic and services began to decline. The Great Harwood line was the first to lose its passenger services in 1957, whilst the through coaches to London were 'temporarily' suspended in