Linking the Midlands again

[class26]

I think a Lincoln to Skegness via Boston service would do well

What we need is Boston to Doncaster via Lincoln to connect with the ECML northbound as connections at Grantham are lamentable
This would kill several birds with one stone as it would connect Boston with Lincoln also. The reason passenger figures are as we find them is partly due to dreadful connections. Many people i know get lifts , taxis or drive to the main line and avoid the local line , even when they (ass I) live well within walking distance of their local station.
One simple example -
I live in Heckington. I frequently need to go to Edinburgh
So Heckington - Grantham. Except for the 06.27 from Heckington there is no connection at Grantham to Scotland without numerous changes such as change at Grantham to Newark (often after a long wait) Change again at Newark which gets you to Doncaster then change again for Scotland. Each change often requires a long tedious wait . It is entirely possible for me , after having left Heckington not leave Newark (which as the crow flies is a mere 20 miles away) for over almost 3 hours. People simply are not going to use such a service. Even I, a devoted rail user find it difficult to justify it so they drive to Newark. Local services gets little long distance traffic (ie the big fares).

A thought is an hourly service in between the present service making 2 trains per hour
. Now i know there will be howls of this isn`t justified etc but in the present climate of getting people out of cars etc we could do this -

Develop park and rides at Hubberts bridge and Sibsey as traffic in Boston is horrendous and this would, in time hopefully develop healthy pax figures. This would need 2 trains per hour to make it attractive to park and ride drivers and this way it might work ? At least this is worth further investigation ?

 

[B&I]

Very interesting. For me Moor street would be fine. Derby could be used to change on XC if needed.

it is amazing how we have gone backwards in some areas. Nottingham to Coventry was always popular under BR to get to Oxford and Reading but avoiding Birmingham.

If the crossing of the WCML at Nuneaton got sorted out, there is great scope for another cross-country line running through a core of Oxford-Coventry-Leicester-Nottingham, with suitable extensions at either end towards Lincolnshire and / or Yorkshire, and the south coast

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

What we need is Boston to Doncaster via Lincoln to connect with the ECML northbound as connections at Grantham are lamentable
This would kill several birds with one stone as it would connect Boston with Lincoln also. The reason passenger figures are as we find them is partly due to dreadful connections. Many people i know get lifts , taxis or drive to the main line and avoid the local line , even when they (ass I) live well within walking distance of their local station.
One simple example -
I live in Heckington. I frequently need to go to Edinburgh
So Heckington - Grantham. Except for the 06.27 from Heckington there is no connection at Grantham to Scotland without numerous changes such as change at Grantham to Newark (often after a long wait) Change again at Newark which gets you to Doncaster then change again for Scotland. Each change often requires a long tedious wait . It is entirely possible for me , after having left Heckington not leave Newark (which as the crow flies is a mere 20 miles away) for over almost 3 hours. People simply are not going to use such a service. Even I, a devoted rail user find it difficult to justify it so they drive to Newark. Local services gets little long distance traffic (ie the big fares).

A thought is an hourly service in between the present service making 2 trains per hour
. Now i know there will be howls of this isn`t justified etc but in the present climate of getting people out of cars etc we could do this -

Develop park and rides at Hubberts bridge and Sibsey as traffic in Boston is horrendous and this would, in time hopefully develop healthy pax figures. This would need 2 trains per hour to make it attractive to park and ride drivers and this way it might work ? At least this is worth further investigation ?

I think Doncaster to Boston maybe an extension to Skegness may be a good service to add

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

That would mean for the Lincolnshire

• 1tph: Nottingham to Skegness
• 1tph: Doncaster to Skegness
• 1tph: Leicester to Grimsby Town
• 1tph: Doncaster to Peterborough (via Lincoln)

 

[class26]

I think Doncaster to Boston maybe an extension to Skegness may be a good service to add

Yes, if Sibsey was to be a park and ride then Skegness would presumably be the destination. A station at Sibsey has been talked about for decades but in the present climate "emergency" these things really do have to be fast forwarded. Many market towns have dreadful traffic, Boston being one as all traffic for the coast must go through the centre. I almost always take the train into Boston from heckington , it is faster and there are few places to park without paying so it`s also cost effective but Lincolnshire folk are surgically attached to their cars and for good reason as public transport is mainly dire so when a rare case occurs that public transport CAN be used they never even consider it. This has to change.

Going through to Skegness does of course add over an hour to the cycle for a DMU and perhaps would mean more units needed. I haven`t looked that closely at it but such a service would mean several wins

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

Yes, if Sibsey was to be a park and ride then Skegness would presumably be the destination. A station at Sibsey has been talked about for decades but in the present climate "emergency" these things really do have to be fast forwarded. Many market towns have dreadful traffic, Boston being one as all traffic for the coast must go through the centre. I almost always take the train into Boston from heckington , it is faster and there are few places to park without paying so it`s also cost effective but Lincolnshire folk are surgically attached to their cars and for good reason as public transport is mainly dire so when a rare case occurs that public transport CAN be used they never even consider it. This has to change.

Going through to Skegness does of course add over an hour to the cycle for a DMU and perhaps would mean more units needed. I haven`t looked that closely at it but such a service would mean several wins

why sibsey? I also think it would have been nice to see the East Lincs Line reopened, again cannot be done.

 

[class26]

why sibsey? I also think it would have been nice to see the East Lincs Line reopened, again cannot be done.

As it is the only village on the east side of Boston of any size that the rail line is close to, is only about 3 miles out of Boston town and would make a useful park and ride for the east whereas Hubberts Bridge would be perfect for the west side as a P & R.
A station at Sibsey has been talked about for years and no doubt lincs c.c. has draws full of consultants reports gathering dust.

Reopening any Lincs line is a very long way off but what i am talking about i would hope were "easy wins".

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

By the way I like the idea of a Cleethorpes-London service once a day. It would be useful and would be well used. I also think a Birmingham to Lincoln service would do good but with only 1tph allowed over the Newark Crossing, it would have to be Birmingham to Grimsby Town (an extension of the planned Leicester-Grimsby service

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

As it is the only village on the east side of Boston of any size that the rail line is close to, is only about 3 miles out of Boston town and would make a useful park and ride for the east whereas Hubberts Bridge would be perfect for the west side as a P & R.
A station at Sibsey has been talked about for years and no doubt lincs c.c. has draws full of consultants reports gathering dust.

Reopening any Lincs line is a very long way off but what i am talking about i would hope were "easy wins".

fair enough

 

[class26]

By the way I like the idea of a Cleethorpes-London service once a day. It would be useful and would be well used. I also think a Birmingham to Lincoln service would do good but with only 1tph allowed over the Newark Crossing, it would have to be Birmingham to Grimsby Town (an extension of the planned Leicester-Grimsby service

I think LNER will probably extend the first service to London and last return to Grimsby / Cleethorpes in the not too distant future. I believe it is being looked at.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

I think LNER will probably extend the first service to London and last return to Grimsby / Cleethorpes in the not too distant future. I believe it is being looked at.

Yes it is. LNER are very keen. The plan is the first and last trains they were talking to the Transport Secretary the other day about doing it

 

[Aictos]

One of the losses of Central trains was the loss of many of the cross midlands services.

Now TPE and Northern have set a precidence at setting up new services to extract other operators revenue - I wonder if other areas could follow suit?

Remember in a few years time we will have lots of fairly decent DMUs looking for work such as the 222s and the 15x

XC
Cardiff - Nottingham, extend it to Lincoln to recreate the CT service (although extremely difficult to path at Newark)

EMR
Grimsby Town - Leicester, extend it to Birmingham (again recreate the CT service). they should be able to get a decent share of XC revenue to make it pay and again gives parts of the East Midlands a direct service to Birmingham again.
London St Pancras - Nottingham - Liverpool Lime Street. (or via Derby)
Give the service away then instantly compete against it, with the bonus of connecting Leicester -Manchester.

Great Anglia
Ipswich - Nottingham / Derby
Extend the Peterborough terminators to the Midlands via Stamford

Doesn't need to be hourly of course, no idea if Nottingham - Ipswich has demands, but it used to have a direct service in BR days. Many of these services were broken up by franchising. I am sure many others exist which can't be any more daft then Liverpool - Edinburgh via Leeds which is passed.

Equally you could extend the XC Leicester terminators to Peterborough which would give a half hourly service from Peterborough to the Midlands via Leicester which could resolve the platform capacity issues at Leicester.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

• 1tph: Nottingham to Skegness
• 1tph: Doncaster to Skegness
• 1tph: Leicester to Grimsby Town
• 1tph: Leeds to Ely (via Lincoln and Peterborough)

ok I had an idea to extend the southern section of the Doncaster to Peterborough service to Ely via March reinstating through services on the route then extending the northern terminus to Leeds via a new station at Askern.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

Equally you could extend the XC Leicester terminators to Peterborough which would give a half hourly service from Peterborough to the Midlands via Leicester which could resolve the platform capacity issues at Leicester.

I like that idea