ferry to Belfast. After the 1923 Grouping, the station and port came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The company developed traffic but made alterations to the passenger services, replacing the St Pancras service with one from London Euston via and the West Coast Main Line and added a second regular boat service to and from Manchester Victoria. Services ran to and from Leeds and through carriages were provided for St Pancras passengers in summer until the onset of World War II. The station was host to three LMS camping coaches in 1934, 12 in 1935 and 36 from 1936 to 1939. Decline and withdrawal of passenger services Nationalisation in January 1948 saw the London Midland Region of British Railways take over the running of the line. British Railways withdrew the old Midland EMUs in 1951 and, two years later, replaced them with three elderly ex-LNWR sets formerly used on the West London Line service between Earls Court and Willesden Junction (a fourth set was added in 1957). The power feed was adjusted to use an alternating frequency of 50 Hz rather than 25 Hz. The units remained in use until after the Beeching Report in 1963, which recommended that services over the former NWR/Midland route from Lancaster be withdrawn and the line closed. Services to Morecambe would be retained, but only in connection with sailings to Douglas and Belfast and were to be diesel-worked. The proposals were approved in August 1965, and the local service was withdrawn on 3 January 1966. The overheads were dismantled the following year, after the Midland line was closed to all traffic between Morecambe, Lancaster and . Freight traffic continued although from June 1967, it operated via Morecambe, where all trains had to reverse. A further change to traffic patterns came about in 1968, when ferry operator Sealink announced its intention to convert the two ships operating out of the port on the Belfast route to "roll-on/roll-off" car ferries rather than conventional passenger ships. The change required major alterations to the ferries and to the berths at both termini. At Heysham, the station building was demolished and its replacement built on an adjacent site. The station reopened for traffic on 4 May 1970. As part of the scheme, a new signal box and associated signalling was provided. The viability of the Belfast route was compromised by the Northern Irish Troubles