Bare Lane railway station

Bare Lane
Location
Place	Bare
Local authority	Lancaster
Coordinates	54°04′30″N 2°50′10″W / 54.075°N 2.836°WCoordinates: 54°04′30″N 2°50′10″W / 54.075°N 2.836°W
Grid reference	SD454646
Operations
Station code	BAR
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.138 million
2011/12	0.141 million
2012/13	0.138 million
2013/14	0.168 million
2014/15	0.184 million
History
Original company	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
8 August 1864	Opened as Poulton-le-Sands[1]
31 October 1864	Renamed Bare Lane[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bare Lane from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

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 & Heysham Port
Legend
West Coast Main Line north Bare Lane Morecambe Heysham Port Lancaster West Coast Main Line south

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.

From December 2008, the daily TransPennine Express service runs in the early morning (calling at 05.49 and again at 06.02 in the opposite direction) and runs to Windermere from Barrow rather than the other way around as it did previously (since April 2016, this is now operated by Northern). The mid-afternoon Morecambe to Leeds service also runs direct to Carnforth (except Saturdays) due to a lack of suitable timetable paths via Lancaster following the introduction of Virgin Trains new high-frequency WCML timetable.

References

1. Butt, R. V. J. (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 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
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 2015-16, Table 98
8. GB NRT 2015-16, Table 42

External links

• Train times and station information for Bare Lane railway station from National Rail
• Railscot - Bare Lane