Blackpool's struggling Pleasure Beach could get a shot of adrenaline with the transfer of a £5m rival ride from Pleasureland in Southport which was axed this week.

Pleasureland bosses hope the popular Traumatizer rollercoaster, a rival to the Big One, will find a new home at Blackpool as a replacement for its Log Flume which closed on Sunday.

The news comes after management at the Southport site, owned by the Pleasure Beach's Thompson family through a subsidiary, Pleasureland Ltd, announced it was to shut down, with immediate effect, at 5pm, on Tuesday.  

According to a Pleasureland spokesman, discussions are still "on-going" but, if relocated to Blackpool, the 109ft Traumatizer, one of Southport's top attractions since 1999, could act as little brother' to the Pleasure Beach's 213ft Pepsi Max Big One, which has been a flagship ride at the Ocean Boulevard site since 1994.

But both Pleasure Beach and Pleasureland management say it is unlikely the 52 permanent members of staff at Southport, made redundant by this week's announcement, will find work at the Blackpool site which is still looking at the possibility of making up to 70 employees redundant.

A Blackpool Pleasure Beach spokesman said: "We are still going through a period of restructure and have yet to confirm what is happening with regards to our own staffing situation."

They confirmed that despite an "increasingly competitive environment" the future of the Blackpool site is not under threat at present.

Accounts filed at Companies House show Pleasure Beach (Holdings) Ltd reported a profit after tax of £2.1m in the year to March 2005, against a £90,000 loss for the previous year.

Speaking on behalf of Pleasureland, which saw a slump in visitors from 2.1m in 2004 to just 500,000 last year after introducing a £2 admission fee, PR manager, Helen O'Neill, said: "It's extremely sad and disheartening that we have had to do this to our hard-working, loyal workforce.

"But the simple fact of the matter is that the entire theme park industry is struggling, not just here in the UK but also further afield.

"In the current climate the Southport site proved to be unsustainable.

"We are now looking into several possibilities including the idea of relocating the Traumatizer ride to the Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

"But it is too early to confirm or deny this. Our priority now is ensuring that our staff are taken care of to the best of our ability."

The Blackpool site is now the only remaining business in the Pleasure Beach empire - Morecambe's Frontierland closed in 2000.

Lori Hudson