Parliamentary train to Heysham Port

Britain’s shortest boat train route must surely be the 4.2 miles from Morecambe to Heysham Port, on which a “Parliamentary” train provides a daily connection with a ferry sailing to and from Douglas operated by the quaintly-named Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

The once-a-day service, to a station where the Northern Trains timetable curiously uses its original name of Heysham Harbour, used to originate at Leeds and travel over the Bentham Line to Carnforth and Lancaster, before reversing there and at Morecambe. 

But that potentially useful direct link for foot passengers in West Yorkshire to travel to and from the Isle of Man with just one change has been lost and now the Heysham service is just an extension of a Lancaster-Morecambe local service.

Both Morecambe and Heysham once had grand stations and a pioneering electric service, until the area’s railways were severely rationalised, with the route being “de-electrified” in 1966 and services rationalised following Beeching recommendations. 

Heysham Port/Harbour station has a colourful history, having been opened by the Midland Railway in 1904 and was served by boat trains that connected with ferries to Belfast until closure of the ferry route in April 1975. 

Train services ended six months later, but the station re-opened as Heysham Sea Terminal in May 1987 to provide a connection with the Isle of Man ferry service, and the station was re-named Heysham Port in May 1987.

Under the current timetable, Heysham’s boat train departs Lancaster at 12.42 (12.44 SO/12.30 SuO) and reaches its destination half an hour later after reversal at Morecambe. In the up direction it departs daily at 13.21 (13.04 SuO).

These times are well-suited to the day-time crossing of the Isle of Man ferry “Ben-My-Chree” which arrives in Heysham each day at 12.30 after its 3hrs 45 minute crossing from Douglas, and sets off on its return crossing at 14.15. 

Despite passengers from West Yorkshire now having a change and facing a lengthy wait at Lancaster, and a two-change journey (Lancaster and Preston) in the eastbound direction, the train remains an ideal way for foot passengers to reach the ferry, so I was intrigued to see how well used this once a day service actually was. 

Waiting at Morecambe to photograph and then join the 12.56 departure for Heysham Port on a fine sunny day (21 June 2023) it was heartening to count a total of 32 passengers aboard on our departure for the port, most of whom were genuine Douglas-bound travellers, rather than joy riders like me.

After stopping outside the station for the driver to change the points at Morecambe Ground Frame we set off on the ten-minute trip to the port, a pleasantly rural journey with a junction for the nuclear power station shortly before arrival at the port, where the large ferry stands alongside with the nuclear plant on the landward side of the station.

There were 21 of us aboard on the 13.21 departure for Lancaster from Heysham Port, with this daily service being one of only a handful of services to use platform 2 at Morecambe and at Bare Lane – the route being operated as two separate single lines between these two stations.

For anyone tempted to take this route and head over to the wonderful Isle of Man, the foot passenger fare from Heysham is just £21.50 single (£36.00 return), which looks a real bargain when compared to the £16.20 cost of a foot passenger single on the rather shorter 22 minute-long Wightlink service from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head.

Heysham Port is one of numerous “Parliamentary” services operated by Northern Trains. Others I have previously featured are Newcastle – Chathill, Helsby – Ellesmere Port, Stalybridge – Stockport and Gainsborough – Barnetby via Brigg, which by my reckoning just leaves Knottingley – Goole as a Northern Parliamentary route I have yet to travel.