"IMMEDIATE action" is needed to address "very significant failings" on the Furness Line, say rail campaigners.

A major £30,000 study says the Barrow-in-Furness to Carnforth railway is "not fit to meet present demand, much less to cope with the expected population and employment booms in Barrow and Ulverston in the coming years".

The 90-page report was presented to transport minister Baroness Kramer by Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron and Cumbria county councillor Ian Stewart, as she confirmed that the Lakes Line was to be electrified.

The study demands urgent action on the Furness Line, such as:

- the return of two-hourly trains to Manchester Airport

- extra trains during the tourist season

- a better timetable that coincides with shift patterns at major employers

- more commuter trains between Barrow and Lancaster on weekday mornings

- the exploration of through trains between Barrow and London

- and electrification of the line by 2030.

The report sets out a future vision for the line, taking into account the expansion of BAE at Barrow, GlaxoSmithKline at Ulverston and a proposed nuclear power station at Moorside in west Cumbria. It says that "significant increases in local population and employment are expected; industrial developments for major employers at Ulverston will lead to a 16 per cent increase in jobs in the next few years and those people will need some way of getting to work".

The study was commissioned by the Furness Line Community Rail Partnership, which is made up of councils, rail companies, businesses, Morecambe Bay Partnership and Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Tim Owen, acting chairman of the Furness Line partnership, said the timetable had perhaps "ossified" in the last 25 years, but times and demand had changed.

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, who called for the report to be commissioned, said that urgent action was needed so that the Furness Line service did not "act as a brake on local economic growth".

He described the industrial investments coming to Barrow and Ulverston as "Olympic-scale" and added: "This study is a very valuable piece of ammunition in the fight to obtain the rail links Furness needs."