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).