History
The Furness Railway's line from Barrow & Dalton-in-Furness was the first railway to serve the town, being completed on 7 June 1854. Three years later the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway opened the line southwards to Carnforth via Arnside and built a new through station on the current site, which opened on 26 August 1857, leaving the old FR terminus to be used as a goods depot. The Furness Railway then took over the Ulverston & Lancaster company in 1862.
The unusual platform layout (where the northbound line has a face on both sides) is a legacy of the station's former role as the interchange for the branch line to Lakeside, which diverged from the main line at Plumpton Junction a few miles to the south before heading north-eastwards through Haverthwaite to its terminus at Lakeside on the southern shore of Windermere. The island platform allowed easy cross-platform interchange for those passengers travelling from the south changing onto the connecting service to Lakeside whilst those wishing to exit the station could do so by alighting on the opposite side platform. Today only platforms one and three are used.
The branch opened on 1 June 1869 and was well-patronised from the outset in the summer months by tourists, who could make a convenient transfer to the Windermere steamboats at Lakeside. The line was much quieter in winter though and year-round services ended in the autumn of 1938 - passenger trains thereafter running only during the summer. This continued until 6 September 1965, when the line fell victim to the Beeching Axe. Its northern end was subsequently reopened on 2 May 1973 as the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway but the remainder was lifted in the early seventies and the trackbed used for improvements to the A590 road (over which passengers must continue their journey if heading to Lakeside today).
Read more about this topic: Ulverston Railway Station
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