Exclusive: Award winning Morecambe Bay tourist attraction looks set for the axe

Just months before the 80th anniversary year of Brief Encounter, the classic film celebrated at Carnforth train station, the Trust which runs its Heritage Centre has decided to hand back the lease to Network Rail.

“I don’t want this situation but after taking legal and professional advice, it’s unviable to continue,” said Bob Roe, Carnforth Station and Railway Trust director.

“The Heritage Centre never really recovered since Covid and we’ve kept it going during the summer but when winter comes, visitor numbers go down and if it’s anything like last year, we lost £10,000.”

Mr Roe said he’s even put £5,000 of his own money into the Centre.

“We’ve virtually exhausted our resources and can’t afford to continue any longer.”

Within the past year, a £2.50 admission charge was introduced but that has failed to help fill the coffers.

Before the Covid pandemic, the Heritage Centre used to attract up to four coachloads of visitors every day and now it was lucky to see one coach a week, Mr Roe explained.

In 2019, it won the Lancashire Tourism Award for small visitor attraction.

Around 45,000 people visited the Centre annually and those figures had now halved.

Mr Roe has blamed Network Rail for having to make a final decision to hand back the lease.

They own the Centre and units at the station from which the Trust earns most of its income.

However, Mr Roe said two of the units can’t be used because they need repairs and the delay in sorting them out is losing the Trust £2,000 a month.

“It’s been in Network Rail’s hands for nine months but they won’t allow me to get contractors in to do the repairs so the buildings are getting in a worse state.

“We have buildings that are getting unusable and don’t have the money to repair them.

“We’ve written to them several times about the situation so the only thing I can do now is to return the lease and let them sort it out,” Mr Roe said.

Mr Roe believes the Heritage Centre will close in mid-October but this will not affect the Brief Encounter Bistro & Bar which will remain open.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: "We recognise what the heritage centre means to the local community which is why we carry out regular safety inspections at the station.

"Currently, our funding is focused on more safety critical sites across the North West, so we can keep trains running safely and reliably across the network.

"However, we will continue to work with third parties to identify additional funding streams for short-term and long-term enhancement projects at Carnforth."

The threat to the Heritage Centre comes amidst other concerns about the station’s general state.

Complaints include flooding in the subway and a corroding steel beam.

The Network Rail spokesperson said the flooding issue was caused by groundwater levels rising.

“We are currently investigating this issue by investigating the historic drainage networks and making remedial works where possible to manage the issue.

“The steel beam is currently propped and awaiting works to rectify.”

The historic clock made famous in Brief Encounter has been missing from the station for about four years as the owner was concerned about how the Trust, which is a charity, was being run.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We are currently assessing concerns about how Carnforth Station and Railway Trust Company is being run, as well as compliance with previous advice given by the Commission. This will determine our next steps.”