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 1959 for electrification work to take place on the Crewe to Manchester route but never reinstated. The biggest losses came though in the 1960s - Wigan trains were withdrawn in January 1960, those to Hellifield in September 1962 and the Southport line & Blackpool Central station both fell victim to the Beeching Axe in 1964. By 1970, the through links to and Liverpool had also gone, leaving only the Manchester via Bolton & Colne to Preston lines along with a few seasonal trains between and via and the Copy Pit route to serve the station. Thus when the lines & station were resignalled in 1973 (control passing to the new power box at Preston as part of the WCML modernisation scheme), three of the station's seven platforms were closed and a fourth (the current platform 4) reduced in length and downgraded to emergency use only. The remaining trains could quite easily be accommodated on platforms 1-3 (the northernmost island of the two). This method of operation would remain until the station underwent its most recent major rebuild in 2000 (see below). The 1980s & 90s would though see a revival in service provision, with the reopening to regular passenger traffic of the Copy Pit line in 1984 (initially on a twice-daily trial basis with services funded by a local building society) and the Ribble Valley line to Clitheroe a decade later in 1994. The latter would be served as an extension of the existing route from Manchester via Bolton, whilst the former brought regular services to & from Blackpool, Leeds and to the station for the first time in more than a decade.