RE the article 'tourist links are on the right track', June 8.

It would have required a miracle for the first train to arrive in 1805, from Leeds/Bradford as the track was not laid at that date.

The line was not announced until 1844, with the track laid-in sections.

A single track opened on June 12, 1848, between Lancaster, Green Ayre and a wooden shed on the new jetty, but the potential for passenger traffic was soon realised, the line was originally envisaged as a freight route, and a station was built at Poulton Lane, now under the York Bridge.

When the section between Tatham Bridge and Wennington opened on November 17, 1849, the first service commenced between Leeds and Morecambe, the name adopted by the developers, with the incomplete sections of track covered by horse-bus.

The line finally opened in its entirety on June 1, 1850.

D Hodgson Sefton Rd Heysham

Apologies and thanks -- I'm afraid we repeated a typographical error on the press release from the council -- Ed