Cash saves day for famous halt
New era dawns at station

By MICHAEL HILL

THE future of Carnforth station is back on track with Railtrack promising over half a million pounds towards renovation.
After years of wrangling, the rail company has promised the money in three amounts ensuring the station is preserved for years to come.
Initially �400,000 will be given to restore operational parts of the station, �100,000 will go towards restoring redundant buildings and �50,000 for improving disabled access.
This money will be topped up by cash already raised by the trust company making a total of �1.2 million.
The decision was made last week at a meeting in Manchester with Railtrack
and local MP Geraldine Smith.
Peter Yates, chairman of the trust company said: "Obviously the link with Brief Encounter is very important as it pulls in visitors from all over the world.
"But our ultimate aim is to get the platform back for the West Coast mainline, then we can bring the town back to life.
"We will be using the money basically to rebuild the station because at the moment it is totally derelict.
"We'll be trying to keep the image of the station as people remember it from the age of steam but also bringing it into the 21st century
"Hopefully we will have features like computer displays and we could even bring back Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
"We are very grateful to Railtrack for agreeing to work in partnership with us and also to Geraldine Smith for helping us."
Work on the station is due to start in June or July of next year but there is no indication yet of when it will be finished.
Unfortunately this will not be in time for the relaunch of Brief Encounter which is planned for Valentine's Day next year.

The VISITOR Wednesday 8th December 1999

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