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Bare Lane railway station

Coordinates: 54°04′30″N 2°50′10″W / 54.075°N 2.836°W / 54.075; -2.836
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Bare Lane
General information
LocationLancaster
Coordinates54°04′30″N 2°50′10″W / 54.075°N 2.836°W / 54.075; -2.836
Managed byNorthern
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeBAR
History
Original companyLondon and North Western Railway
Post-groupingLondon Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
8 August 1864Opened as Poulton-le-Sands[1]
31 October 1864Renamed Bare Lane[1]

Bare Lane railway station serves the village of Bare, which is a suburb of Morecambe in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Morecambe Branch Line from Lancaster to Heysham Port and was opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1864.

A level crossing with the public highway known as Bare Lane exists immediately to the west of the station, which until recently was controlled by the adjacent Bare Lane signal box, a fringe cabin to the Preston PSB Area. This box was closed on 8 December 2012,[2] when the signalling equipment was renewed by Network Rail and control of the crossing switched to CCTV and transferred to Preston power box.[3]

The old station building on the platform is now a private dwelling. It was auctioned to the public, and was featured on the BBC programme Homes Under the Hammer, a show about buildings which are auctioned to the public and redeveloped.

The station in 1962

Layout

Although the station has two side platforms, the track layout through it is not the conventional double track used on most main & secondary routes, but two independent bi-directional single lines. Platform 1 serves the Up & Down Morecambe line (which is in effect a long siding all the way to the terminus), whilst platform 2 handles trains on what is now the Up & Down Heysham line. The latter is connected to the now-single track branch down to Heysham Port at Holt Bank Junction (just outside Morecambe station), with the junction points operated from a ground frame worked by the train crew. The two lines converge east of the station, but then immediately split into the single line curves toward Hest Bank and towards Lancaster; the former sees only limited use, whereas the latter was double track until 1988 and is used by the vast majority of trains on the route.

This layout dates from the closure of the former terminus at Morecambe Promenade and its associated signal box in February 1994, with Bare Lane signal box taking over control of all signalling on the line thereafter (other than that controlling the junctions with the main line at Hest Bank). As mentioned above however, it was closed in December 2012. The structure remained intact for another year and had been used for several months by Northern staff as a manned help point for travellers due to the absence of digital passenger information screens at the station.[4] It was eventually demolished in January 2014 after the PIS screens were installed and finally brought into use.[5]

The station isn't staffed and has no ticket facilities of any kind (passengers must buy them in advance or on the train). Waiting shelters are provided and both platforms have step-free access.[6]

Services

Morecambe, Lancaster
and Heysham Port
Legend
West Coast Main Line
Bare Lane
Lancaster
Morecambe
ferry/water interchange Heysham Port
West Coast Main Line

The station is served by Northern local services, which operate as a regular (hourly with some peak extras) Lancaster-Morecambe shuttle.[7]

There are also a few longer-distance services (currently four per day all week) from Morecambe to Skipton and Leeds via the Leeds to Morecambe Line.[8] In addition, for many years the last train each weekday evening was a First TransPennine Express service from Windermere, which diverted from its route to Barrow-in-Furness. This service called at Lancaster, Bare Lane and Morecambe, before reversing, calling at Bare Lane again, then rejoining the West Coast Main Line and continuing via Carnforth thus avoiding the 1m 7ch section of the WCML between Hest Bank South Junction and Hest Bank North Junction. This was the only scheduled service to use the original 1864 curve towards Hest Bank and as such functions as a Parliamentary train to avoid the need for formal closure proceedings for this short stretch of line.

References

  1. ^ a b Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  2. ^ Bare Lane signal box pictured on 7 December 2012, shortly before closure www.railbrit.co.uk; retrieved 2012-12-22
  3. ^ NR Bare Lane box closure proposals & TOC responses NR website; Retrieved 2011-05-26
  4. ^ Photo of interior of decommissioned signal box in July 2013 Railscot; Retrieved 2013-12-05
  5. ^ Bare Lane station on 22 January 2014 after demolition of the signal boxRailscot; Retrieved 2014-01-23
  6. ^ Bare Lane station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 1 December 2016
  7. ^ GB National Rail Timetable May 2017, Table 98
  8. ^ Table 42 National Rail timetable, May 2017
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bare Lane railway station.
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Lancaster   Northern
Leeds to Morecambe Line
& Morecambe Branch Line 		  Morecambe
Carnforth
(limited service) 		   
Oxenholme Lake District
(limited service) 		   
  Historical railways  
Lancaster Castle   London and North Western Railway
Morecambe Branch Line 		  Morecambe Euston Road
until 1963
Hest Bank     Morecambe Promenade
from 1958
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