Carnforth is a railway station on the Bentham and Furness Lines, north of Lancaster, England, which serves the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

Carnforth Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 rec ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

. It is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

and managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

Carnforth railway station was opened on 22 September 1846 by the

Lancaster and Carlisle Railway The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was a main line railway opened between those cities in 1846. With its Scottish counterpart, the Caledonian Railway, the Company launched the first continuous railway connection between the English railway netwo ...

(L&CR). It had a single platform and was a second-class station. It became a junction on 6 June 1857, when the Ulverstone and Lancaster Railway arrived from the north-west. The station served as the line's southern terminus. The Furness Railway took over the U&LR in 1862, and became the second major company operating to Carnforth. The station was enlarged during the 1870s. In 1880, it began receiving trains from the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

, following the commissioning of a south-to-east direct curve to the Furness and Midland Joint Railway – creating a triangular junction. The L&CR was taken over by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR), with the station operated under a joint management by the Furness Railway and LNWR – the Midland Railway having running powers into the station. Station personnel wore a uniform with the initials CJS for Carnforth: Joint Station. The Furness Railway erected a distinctive stone-built signal box to the north-west of the station in 1882, used until 1903, and this survives preserved as a grade II listed building. A major rebuilding project, including a 300-yard long platform (currently used by northbound services), started in 1938 with government funding. With the opening of the new Platform on 3rd July 1939, it brought the number of platforms in use to six. In 1942, the government approved the rebuilding of Carnforth MPD into a major regional railway depot – the work being completed in 1944. The film '' Brief Encounter'' was partly filmed at the station in February 1945. The station clock became a powerful icon through repeated use in the film.

Withdrawal of West Coast Main Line services

The West Coast Main Line (WCML) platforms were closed in May 1970, following the withdrawal of local stopping passenger services between Lancaster and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

two years earlier. The platform walls facing the fast lines were demolished, cut back and fenced off before the commissioning of 25 kV overhead electrification in 1974. This made Carnforth a secondary line station, even though it is situated on the main line, as WCML trains cannot call. In 2011,

rejected proposals to reopen the mainline platforms, stating that there would be too few passengers to justify slowing down mainline trains. Only the former platforms 4 (the original Furness Railway through platform) and 6 (the LMS 1939 platform) remain in use (now renumbered 1 and 2); the old 'Midland bay' (No 5), which once catered for services on the Furness and Midland Joint Railway (between Carnforth and ) has had its track removed. Responsibility for the signalling at the station is divided between Preston PSB (main line) and the surviving manual ex-Furness Railway

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

at Carnforth Station Junction, sited just past the junction between the Barrow and Leeds lines. This has acted as the 'fringe' box to the PSB since the main line was resignalled in 1972/3. Two other boxes (F&M Junction and East Junction) were closed and demolished when the northern side of the triangle (avoiding the station) was decommissioned in 1998.

Refurbishment

After lying in a semi-derelict state for many years, the station buildings were refurbished between 2000 and 2003 and returned to commercial use. An award-winning Heritage Centre including a small railway museum and the "Brief Encounter" refreshment room, a number of shops and a travel/ticket office occupy the buildings. The outer half of the non-operational up main (southbound) platform is in use as the access route to the subway, the active platforms and tea room. Since the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

, the station has been operated by First North Western (1997-2004), First TransPennine Express (2004-2016) and

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

(2016 to date).

Facilities

The booking office is staffed part-time (six days per week, closed Sundays and public holidays). It is run by an independent retailer on behalf of the local authority but sells a full range of National Rail tickets. Both platforms have waiting rooms and step-free access (by the aforementioned subway ramps) from the station entrance, whilst train running information is provided by automated PA announcements, timetable posters and digital information screens. There is also a micropub called The Snug which was the first of its kind to be set up in the North West and has been in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. They host an annual beer festival inside the Heritage Centre in mid-to-late November. To the west of the station lies Carnforth MPD, which is also the headquarters of

West Coast Railways West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Steamtown Carnforth visitor attraction, in June 1998 the com ...

Services

Bentham Line

As of the May 2022 timetable change, eight trains per day (five on Sunday) operate between Lancaster and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

via

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the Riv ...

. Most run to and from , though the first service of the day originates from and terminates here (running empty to Lancaster to take up its return working). Rolling stock used: Class 150 ''Sprinter'' and Class 158 ''Express Sprinter''

Furness Line

As of the May 2022 temporary timetable change, eleven trains per day (seven on Sunday) operate between and , with an hourly service running between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness. Some trains continue to

via

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

. Trains are operating to a
amended timetable
owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rolling stock used: Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' and Class 195 ''Civity''

Morecambe Branch Line

A single early morning direct service to Morecambe (departing from Carnforth at 05:32), using the north curve at , operates on weekdays and Saturday. It is a

parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act req ...

, providing a statutory minimum service over this stretch of railway.

Gallery

References

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in Lancaster DfT Category F1 stations Former Furness Railway stations Former Lancaster and Carlisle Railway stations Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1880 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1880 Northern franchise railway stations William Tite railway stations 1846 establishments in England Stations on the West Coast Main Line Carnforth