Early years The route is a fusion of lines opened by the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR), the
"little" North Western Railway (NWR) and the
Midland Railway, which built the branch to
Heysham Harbour and
Morecambe Promenade terminus after it took over the NWR in 1874. The first proposals for a branch from Morecambe to the
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&C) at Hest Bank were put forward by the
Morecambe Harbour and Railway Company (a constituent company of the NWR) in 1846 but these were soon dropped on cost grounds. The L&C revived the scheme in 1858, with the intention of using the NWR's harbour facilities (suitably expanded) to export coke & iron ore from the North East, brought in via the
South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway and the L&C main line. The NWR opposed the plans as it would lose its monopoly on traffic into the town, but its shaky finances eventually led it to reach an agreement with the L&C that would allow the latter to build its line but not require the associated harbour improvements to be carried out. The three-mile branch, including a link to the NWR station at
Northumberland Street, was opened in August 1864. The hoped-for mineral traffic did not materialise and the route remained a modest branch, although the LNWR did have to provide its own station at
Poulton Lane from November 1870 because of increasing congestion at Northumberland Street. This was replaced by a rather more substantial terminus at nearby
Euston Road in 1886 as part of an improvement scheme that also saw the construction of a west-to-south curve from
Bare Lane to join the WCML at Morecambe South Junction (opened in 1888), which permitted through running to without the need for a reversal, and hence gave access for longer-distance trains to places such as
Manchester,
Liverpool and
London. The branch was also doubled (apart from the Hest Bank to Bare Lane curve) and a regular local service introduced between Euston Road and Lancaster Castle to complement that to/from Hest Bank. Despite these improvements and a journey time similar to the older route, the Midland line continued to carry most of the traffic to and from the town, especially after it was electrified in 1908 (see below). The branch became more important after the 1923 Grouping, with a
London Euston to Heysham boat train commencing in 1928 – this ran to Promenade station, where it reversed for its journey to Heysham to meet the Belfast boat. Euston Road remained much quieter than Promenade for most of the year, though it did come into its own in the summer months when the regular local trains to Lancaster, and were supplemented by a large number of seasonal through trains to destinations such as , ,
Birmingham New Street,
Manchester Victoria and London Euston.
Electrification The Midland line was used for an early trial of electrification, opened between 13 April and 14 September 1908 using 6600 V AC at 25 Hz. In 1953, it was converted to 50 Hz as a trial, and this experiment led to the 25 kV, 50 Hz system becoming standard for new electrification. Latterly, former LNWR Euston to Watford EMU's ran on the Morecambe and Heysham line, converted to AC overhead operation. The branch remained electrified until it closed in 1966.
Decline Though Morecambe remained a popular resort after the
nationalisation of the railway system in 1948, post-war road competition began to take its toll on traffic levels and by the late 1950s
British Railways decided to concentrate services at the former Midland station. Scheduled trains were diverted to Promenade from 15 September 1958, but Euston Road remained in seasonal use (summer months only) for several more years – the 1959 Saturday timetable from there listed no fewer than 26 arrivals and 23 departures, including trains to Glasgow, Birmingham New Street, Preston, , , and . This was in addition to the usual scheduled services to/from Promenade. The station eventually closed to passengers at the end of the 1962 summer season (on 8 September), although it was still listed in the 1963 summer timetable (but not actually served in practice) and continued to be used for parcels traffic & carriage stabling until 1965. The neighbouring goods yard remained open for traffic until October 1972. The biggest changes to the route occurred soon after, as the 1963
Beeching Report recommended that it should be kept open rather than the Midland line to , even though the latter was electrified. This proposal was ratified by the Ministry of Transport in August 1965 and on 3 January 1966 the Midland line closed to passenger traffic. An enhanced DMU shuttle to and from Lancaster Castle was introduced over the branch on the same day to replace the withdrawn services via Green Ayre. Trains from
Leeds and were also diverted over the line from this date, using the former
Furness and Midland Joint Railway to , the WCML to Hest Bank and then the original 1864 north curve to Bare Lane en route to Morecambe. The only ex-Midland facilities to survive were the terminus at Promenade and the 1904 Heysham branch, which was retained to serve the ferry terminal & adjacent nuclear power plant. This lost its passenger trains in October 1975, following the withdrawal of Belfast sailings earlier that year.
Recent changes In May 1987, services from Leeds were diverted to run via Lancaster (with a reversal) rather than directly via Hest Bank, and the Heysham branch was reopened to passengers in connection with the daily sailing to the Isle of Man. Promenade was replaced by a smaller station closer to the town centre in May 1994 and the Heysham line singled under the control of the signal box at Bare Lane. Following signalling renewal work in late 2012, the entire line is now supervised from the PSB at Preston. ==Services==