'A community asset instead of a community rubbish dump': Derelict rail track to reopen as walking route

A “rubbish dump” of a railway line has been given a new lease of life - and is set to reopen to the public after 40 years of abandonment.

Running from Longridge to Preston, the old Deepdale railway line is best known for the Miley Tunnel, which runs directly beneath the city for half a mile.

The supposedly-haunted tunnel has for decades been blighted by fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour, with “several tonnes” of sofas, mattresses, and bikes being illegally dumped across the site.

That was until last year, when a group of volunteers led by the Preston Conservative Association’s Andy Pratt approached Network Rail and offered to give the line a new lease of life.

“[We said] we were willing to remove all of the rubbish on a partnership approach,” Andy told the Lancashire Evening Post.

“We worked with the National Probation Service and the Community Payback teams. They’ve helped with clearing the foliage, because it was impossible - there were trees and brambles and all sorts down this line.

“National Rail have provided the skips, and myself and up to 150 different volunteers from all communities have come and shifted the rubbish.

“We’ve worked for 18 months.”

The Longridge to Preston railway line was first opened at the beginning of May 1840, when the Preston terminus was located behind Stephenson’s Terrace on Deepdale Road.

It had first been used to transport freight, such as the wood and stone used for the constriction of Fulwood Barracks.

Six years later, the line was bought by the Fleetwood, Preston, and West Riding Railway Company, who built the Miley Tunnel.

30 years later, they would connect it to Preston Central Station, where it would continue serving passengers until 1930, and coal trains until the early 1990s.

“It’s a real historic part of Preston that we’d love to preserve and make a community asset instead of a community rubbish dump,” Andy said.

“Probably 99 per cent of the people dumping rubbish have stopped. There are a few persistent folk, and we’re constantly on their case to get it stopped. “

Now, after decades of disuse, the line is set to reopen to the public once more - this time as a walking route into the city.

“What we’re hoping is to create a lovely walk into the city. We’re looking to do cycleways on the various bridges, and open it up to the people of Preston.

“[Before, there were] hundreds of old mattresses, televisions, car seats, thousands upon thousands of bottles and cans, dirty nappies, knives...

“We’ve shifted probably 130 tonnes of rubbish. Now, it’s a lovely walkway into the city.”

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