Date: 01/02/2020

Beeching's cuts and the closure of ICI dented the town's pride. Now the PM's pledge has sent hopes soaring. The modest headquarters of the Poulton & Wyre Railway Society occupy a patch of land that used to belong to ICI, the chemicals giant that abandoned the Lancashire town of Fleetwood in the 1990s. A bright blue 1950s shunter, straight from the pages of Thomas the Tank Engine, sits next to a 1920s railway carriage used for storage. Inside an adjacent portable building, the president of the PWRS, Eddie Fisher, and its chairman, Brian Crawford, are trying to come to terms with their new and unexpected role in the vanguard of the Conservatives' plan to 'level up' 2020s Britain. 'We've got to seize the moment,' says Fisher, 54, who works as a driver instructor on the national network. 'If we dont take this chance, we will bitterly regret it.'

External links

Can a restored railway line get Fleetwood back on track?

The Guardian

Beechings cuts and the closure of ICI dented the towns pride. Now the PMs pledge has sent hopes soaring