Editing Lancaster Canal (section)

===Operation===
[[File:Carnforth Canal.jpg|thumb|left|Basin at Carnforth, frozen over in the winter]]

Once the North End and the South End were connected by the tramway, profitability increased significantly. In 1803, gross income was £4,853; the following year, with the tramway now open, income jumped to £8,490. Revenue from tolls in 1803 was £4,332, with around 29 per cent derived from the South End and tramway. By 1807, this had risen to £12,467, of which 51 per cent came from the South End and tramway. Shareholders received a dividend of half a percent in 1803, and one percent from 1805 onwards.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |p=191}}
Toll income for 1820, with the link to Kendal newly opened, rose to £25,289, with just over half coming from the North End, and in 1825 was £27,069, with the North End contributing 52 per cent. Goods carried included grain, timber, potatoes and slate, while the canal was also used to export coal bound for Ulverston, North Wales and Ireland. The Glasson branch allowed small ships to use the canal without transhipment, and the number doing so rose from 64 in 1830, to 185 in 1840.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |pp=196-197}}

In the 1830s, the Canal Company realised it would have to adapt to the threat of railways. They forced the [[North Union Railway]] to build a bridge where it crossed the line of the canal to Westhoughton by extending the canal beyond Wigan locks for a short distance, although the idea of a canal to Westhoughton had long since been abandoned. The [[Bolton and Preston Railway]] wanted to use the line of the Lancaster Canal Tramway to reach Preston, and so they leased the line for £8,000 per year from 1837. However, they reached agreement with the North Union Railway in 1838 to use their line into Preston, but the Canal Company were not prepared to take back the tramway.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |pp=198-199}} In order to compete with a potential railway north of Preston, they ran packet boats providing an express passenger service between Preston and Lancaster, which took just three hours, and later extended the service to Kendal,{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |pp=199-201}} with passengers walking up or down the flight of locks at Tewitfield and embarking on a second boat. The seven-hour journey time halved the best speeds of stage coaches; because of the comfort of the journey, passengers stayed loyal to the packet boats even after the advent of railway competition in the 1840s.

The pumping station at Preston was sold in 1836, as experience had shown that the water supply from Killington reservoir was adequate for the whole canal. Part of Whittle Hill tunnel on the South End section was converted to a cutting after roof collapses in 1827 and 1836.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |p=201}} In the early 1840s, attempts were made to sell the canal to a railway company, but as neither the North Union Railway nor the Bolton and Preston Railway were interested, they leased the [[Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway]] from 1 September 1842.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970a |p=202}} Seven years of complicated haggling ensued, with claims and counter-claims made by the canal and by various railway companies, until in 1849, the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway became part of the [[Lancaster and Carlisle Railway]]. Acting as arbitrator, [[Robert Stephenson]] awarded the canal £55,552, and their claims to the railway ceased on 1 August 1849. During the seven years, the canal had made a profit of £67,391, which enabled them to pay off all their mortgages, award the proprietors a bonus of £1 17s 6d (£1 87.5p) per share and allocate £6,700 to a contingency fund.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |pp=420-421}}

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Lancaster Canal Transfer Act 1864
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act for authorizing a Lease of a Portion of the Undertaking of the Company of Proprietors of the Lancaster Canal Navigation to the Company of Proprietors of the Canal Navigation from Leeds to Liverpool, and of the Remainder thereof to the London and North-western Railway Company; and for other Purposes.
| year                  = 1864
| citation              = [[27 & 28 Vict.]] c. cclxxxviii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 29 July 1864
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/27-28/288/pdfs/ukla_18640288_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
An agreement was reached with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway in 1850, whereby the railway carried passengers and general merchandise to Kendal, but the canal carried coal and heavy goods. The canal continued to carry goods between Glasson and Preston,{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |p=421}} and the relationship between the canal and railway carried on somewhat uneasily until 1858, when a dispute occurred, and the railway started to block the coal traffic from Kendal to the Lake District.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |pp=423-424}} The [[London and North Western Railway]] leased the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway from 1859, and the proprietors sought to lease the canal to the London and North Western Railway in 1860. After a bill to authorise the arrangement was defeated in the House of Lords in 1863, it was reintroduced the following year, and became an act of Parliament, the '''{{visible anchor|Lancaster Canal Transfer Act 1864}}''' ([[27 & 28 Vict.]] c. cclxxxviii), on 29 July 1864. The canal company then received £12,665.87 per year for the lease of the northern end of the canal, which allowed them to continue paying dividends and to make investments. The South End was leased to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal for £7,075 per year, and the tramway was closed from Preston to Bamber Bridge.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |pp=424-425}} Traffic on the remainder of the tramway had ceased by 1879, and it was closed. Eventually, the railway company offered to buy the canal, and this was formalised by an act of Parliament{{which|date=September 2024}} obtained on 16 July 1885, although they actually took over the canal on 1 July.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |p=425}}

Under railway ownership, the canal was well-maintained, particularly because it carried coal from Preston to Kendal Gas Works, which had been built in 1824 on land bought from the canal company. This traffic amounted to between {{convert|6500|and|7500|long ton}} each year, and there was no railway access to the gas works. The canal had always suffered problems with leakage due to limestone fissures in the bed, and the [[London, Midland and Scottish Railway]], who by then owned the canal, obtained the [[London Midland and Scottish Railway Act 1939]] ([[2 & 3 Geo. 6]]. c. xxviii) which authorised them to close the first {{convert|0.5|mi|km|1|adj=on}} section at Kendal. By 1941–42, the section north of the gas works was unused and was closed because of leakage. The railway then attempted to close the whole canal in 1944, along with several others in their ownership, but opposition in the House of Lords resulted in the Lancaster Canal being removed from the scope of that act. Coal traffic to the gas works was transferred to road vehicles in 1944, and the canal carried its final commercial traffic in 1947.{{sfn |Hadfield |Biddle |1970b |pp=425–427}}