Arnside is a railway station on the

Furness Line The Furness line is a British railway between and , joining the West Coast Main Line at . A predominantly passenger line, it serves various towns along the Furness coast, including Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands. It runs thr ...

, which runs between and . The station, situated north-west of Lancaster, serves the village of

Arnside Arnside is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, historically part of Westmorland, near the border with Lancashire, England. The Lake District National Park is located a few miles North. Travelling by road, Arnside is to the south of Kendal, ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. 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 leng ...

and managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT) ...

. A short distance west of the station, the railway crosses the

River Kent The River Kent is a short river in the county of Cumbria in England. It originates in hills surrounding Kentmere, and flows for around 20 miles (32 km) into the north of Morecambe Bay. The upper reaches and the western bank of the estuary ...

on an impressive 50-span viaduct that is some long. The historic structure underwent major repairs and refurbishment, including the complete replacement of the rail deck in 2011. Similar work was carried out on the nearby

Leven Estuary The River Leven (pron. ) is a short river in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, falling within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. It drains Windermere from its southernmost point and flows for approximately into the northern reaches of Mo ...

viaduct in the spring of 2006.

History

Opened on 1 August 1858 by the

Ulverstone and Lancaster Railway The Ulverstone 'sic''and Lancaster Railway Company was short-lived as a business but the line that it built is still in daily use. The line runs from Lindal-in-Furness to Carnforth railway station, Carnforth where it joins what was then the La ...

(a company backed by, and later taken over by the

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

) (FR), the station became part of the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The station then passed on to the

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by

Regional Railways Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''. Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...

until 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 industr ...

. A short

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

to Sandside and ''Hincaster Junction'' on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

once diverged from the main line here, which carried a to

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

local service from its opening in 1876 until 1942. In July 1922, this FR service ran five times per day in each direction on weekdays. The branch was also used by mineral trains from

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

to the Barrow-in-Furness area, allowing them to avoid having to reverse direction at the busy junction at

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 reco ...

. Local freight traffic continued as far as Sandside until final closure of the line in 1972. The disused platform face and trackbed is still visible behind the southbound platform.

Facilities

Whilst one building remains at the station, it is not in railway use. Shelters are provided for passengers on both platforms, but the only link between them is via a footbridge with stairs (no step-free access). Digital information screens, customer help points, timetable posters and automated announcements provide train running details. As the station is unstaffed, tickets can only be bought from the ticket machine or on the train.

Services

It is served by stopping trains between and Barrow, with some continuing to

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucle ...

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

via the

Cumbrian Coast Line The Cumbrian Coast line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues (as the Furness line) via Ulverston an ...

in the northbound direction and by some through services southbound to and . There is one train per hour in each direction on weekdays, although the varying nature of the stopping patterns of each service means the timetable is irregular. On Sundays there is a train every hour each way (up from a two-hourly frequency since May 2018).

References

Sources

* *
Station on navigable Ordnance Survey map

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in Cumbria DfT Category F2 stations Former Ulverston and Lancaster Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1858 Northern franchise railway stations Arnside