Skegness by EMR this Summer, 2 car 158s today, must be cozy

[richardderby]

I see EMR are operating 2 car 158 units on the Skegness line today, as its lovely weather, I can see many people getting left behind, especially as there are 2 hour gaps on Sundays.

Surely the service could have double units on peak bank holiday Sunday? What are the plans for this summer?

I see the 170s have been moved elsewhere, and there is no mention of additional bus replacements on the EMR website (see below)

Train travel to Skegness this Summer | EMR

#skeg-blue { background: #4e8bd8; color: #fff; padding:20px; border: 2px solid #fff; } #skeg-brown { background: #4C2F48; color: #fff; padding:20px; border: 2px solid #fff; } #skeg-yellow { background: #fecf71; color: #fff; padding:20px; border: 2px solid #fff; }

www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk

What we are doing in 2026
From the May 2026 timetable change, we will operate a strengthened service between Nottingham and Skegness on key days (Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays) for the full timetable, up until December 2026. This includes:

Approximately 4683 extra seats available per week.
Enhanced staffing and customer support at Nottingham and Skegness on key days from 17 July - 5 September.
Priority queuing for advance ticket bookings
Extra luggage racks to be installed
We strongly recommend pre-booking a place on your chosen train. Around 85% of our Skegness customers already book ahead, which helps them secure the best prices and availability. You can book up to 12 weeks in advance. By doing this, you’ll be able to select the train you wish to travel on and will be able to book your return journey at the same time.

There isn’t the option to book a specific seat, but it will guarantee you a place on the train of your choice and a place in the priority boarding queue

 

[Russel]

Why do we accept a railway that simply isn't fit for purpose?

It's a Sunday, there must be plenty of spare units that could be used to increase capacity on this, it shows the usual contempt for the customers.

 

[tram21]

EMR have been running 4 car 158s on Mondays and Fridays. I have to say I don't really understand their unit scheduling, why not on Saturdays and Sundays too?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Does anyone know what this actually means? From the linked website.

From the May 2026 timetable change, we will operate a strengthened service between Nottingham and Skegness on key days (Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays) for the full timetable, up until December 2026.

 

[Kite159]

Especially as a EMR 158 isn't as good as a 170 in terms of luggage storage areas.

 

[richardderby]

20 years ago Skegness has C.450,000 passengers per year, it is now at C.400,000 but the lack of capacity must be further suppressing demand.
the 170s had more space and often ran in 5 cars. there used to be additional Summer HSTs on the line on Saturday. I presume this is the DFT choosing not to pay for adequate rolling stock this Summer.

 

[Farigiraf]

It seems that in recent years EMR has decided that the best solution to handling Skegness summer traffic is to deter people from taking the train at these times - quite defeatist. I wonder if GBR will continue this attitude, or improve upon it?
They could take a page out of GWR's book and undertake a similar project to the Tarka line upgrade - a couple million pounds (not an enormous sum all things considered) to double the frequency, greatly increasing capacity during the summer. I'm sure there's enough demand from the intermediate market towns towards Nottingham to justify 2tph year-round - given the town's population, Boston has fairly low annual usage. Though I suppose rural lincolnshire doesn't have the most progressive, pro-rail voterbase, so I'd expect gradual decline rather than growth on the Poacher line in the years to come.

 

[Trainguy34]

EMR have been running 4 car 158s on Mondays and Fridays. I have to say I don't really understand their unit scheduling, why not on Saturdays and Sundays too?

Butlins in Skegness has Mondays and Fridays as changeover days so they will have the bulk of the passengers.

 

[bramling]

It seems that in recent years EMR has decided that the best solution to handling Skegness summer traffic is to deter people from taking the train at these times - quite defeatist. I wonder if GBR will continue this attitude, or improve upon it?
They could take a page out of GWR's book and undertake a similar project to the Tarka line upgrade - a couple million pounds (not an enormous sum all things considered) to double the frequency, greatly increasing capacity during the summer. I'm sure there's enough demand from the intermediate market towns towards Nottingham to justify 2tph year-round - given the town's population, Boston has fairly low annual usage. Though I suppose rural lincolnshire doesn't have the most progressive, pro-rail voterbase, so I'd expect gradual decline rather than growth on the Poacher line in the years to come.

I get the feeling that the railway just isn’t really interesting in catering for the needs of Skegness. The demand is highly peaky and to some extent influenced by weather. In terms of passenger numbers and revenue even a packed 5-car Sprinter a couple of times a day is a drop in the ocean - even a high summer day’s worth of Skegness journeys is the equivalent of a couple of Thameslink 12-car 700s in terms of numbers, and likely less monetary value.

EMR will have more predictable flows on other routes where their scarce DMUs can be more effectively deployed.

I can’t see this really changing, Skegness was fortunate to be able to utilise HSTs that at the time weren’t heavily utilised on their core work.

 

[43096]

I can’t see this really changing, Skegness was fortunate to be able to utilise HSTs that at the time weren’t heavily utilised on their core work.

Once all the 810s are in service, will that make available a couple of sets on a Saturday that aren't needed for London services, as was the case with the HSTs?

 

[dk1]

Butlins in Skegness has Mondays and Fridays as changeover days so they will have the bulk of the passengers.

Yes this is why GA run additional Norwich-Yarmouth services MFO during July/August (although they could do with them on some earlier & later dates too) and Taunton Station to Minhead buses suffer the same problem.

 

[YorkshireBear]

It seems that in recent years EMR has decided that the best solution to handling Skegness summer traffic is to deter people from taking the train at these times - quite defeatist. I wonder if GBR will continue this attitude, or improve upon it?
They could take a page out of GWR's book and undertake a similar project to the Tarka line upgrade - a couple million pounds (not an enormous sum all things considered) to double the frequency, greatly increasing capacity during the summer. I'm sure there's enough demand from the intermediate market towns towards Nottingham to justify 2tph year-round - given the town's population, Boston has fairly low annual usage. Though I suppose rural lincolnshire doesn't have the most progressive, pro-rail voterbase, so I'd expect gradual decline rather than growth on the Poacher line in the years to come.

If anything it will be worse under GBR I think, there isn't much evidence that they are focussing on revenue growth as opposed to cost cuts yet.

 

[MontyP]

This seems to be the exact opposite of what the railways exist for, surpressing demand that is entirely predictable

 

[dk1]

This seems to be the exact opposite of what the railways exist for, surpressing demand that is entirely predictable

As I once read in a book, “we do all we can to put them off catching the train but still they keep coming”.

 

[Russel]

As I once read in a book, “we do all we can to put them off catching the train but still they keep coming”.

My journey home from York to Birmingham on Friday evening certainly involved the railway throwing everything possible at me to put me off ever looking at a train again!

 

[dk1]

My journey home from York to Birmingham on Friday evening certainly involved the railway throwing everything possible at me to put me off ever looking at a train again!

You’ll be back, everybody does

 

[bramling]

This seems to be the exact opposite of what the railways exist for, surpressing demand that is entirely predictable

Whilst it might be predictable, it’s still no less awkward. Say the Butlins demand requires an extra 2 DMUs on those two days, what do you do with the DMU on the other five days? What happens during winter? Unfortunately it’s never going to be economic to have several £million worth of DMU exist purely for that. Whilst there’s elements of this for south-east commuting, the economic activity this support is, being brutally objective, far more important than Butlins / the Skegness economy.

 

[worldsteam]

If you look generally across EMR today or most days, there has been much short forming on other routes. Skegness is part of a total shambles. Matlock has seen cancellations and short forming, so I suspect conditions to/from Matlock Bath have been cosy if you could get on the train at all. But I don't rant at EMR - hello DfT and their masters, the Treasury.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Butlins puts on themed events through the year. Skegness demand F + S can be there much of the year.

 

[43096]

If you look generally across EMR today or most days, there has been much short forming on other routes. Skegness is part of a total shambles. Matlock has seen cancellations and short forming, so I suspect conditions to/from Matlock Bath have been cosy if you could get on the train at all. But I don't rant at EMR - hello DfT and their masters, the Treasury.

EMR now have more stock in their regional fleet than was the case when it was just the 15x fleets. The 21 x 153s and 24 x 156s (69 vehicles) have been replaced by 43 Turbostars (102 vehicles), which is a reasonable (27%) capacity increase. So the question is - what are EMR doing with them?

 

[BorderCollie]

I'm sure I read an 810 went to Skeggy a couple of weeks ago. Preparations?

 

[dk1]

I'm sure I read an 810 went to Skeggy a couple of weeks ago. Preparations?

I know they did a trip a few months ago but the it was probably just a route clearance which was part of the contract/agreement with Hitachi. We did the same with the Stadler fleet to Southend Vic even though there are no intentions of using them on that line.

 

[Kite159]

If you look generally across EMR today or most days, there has been much short forming on other routes. Skegness is part of a total shambles. Matlock has seen cancellations and short forming, so I suspect conditions to/from Matlock Bath have been cosy if you could get on the train at all. But I don't rant at EMR - hello DfT and their masters, the Treasury.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Butlins puts on themed events through the year. Skegness demand F + S can be there much of the year.

At least these days the days of a single 153 heading to Matlock are long gone

 

[Meole]

At least these days the days of a single 153 heading to Matlock are long gone

Was it ever full though ?

 

[Kite159]

Was it ever full though ?

Oh yes, especially at weekends

 

[Djgr]

Whilst it might be predictable, it’s still no less awkward. Say the Butlins demand requires an extra 2 DMUs on those two days, what do you do with the DMU on the other five days? What happens during winter? Unfortunately it’s never going to be economic to have several £million worth of DMU exist purely for that. Whilst there’s elements of this for south-east commuting, the economic activity this support is, being brutally objective, far more important than Butlins / the Skegness economy.

Subjective rather than objective surely.

You are make assumptions about the value created (or otherwise) by white collar dormitary suburban commuters.

 

[LowLevel]

EMR now have more stock in their regional fleet than was the case when it was just the 15x fleets. The 21 x 153s and 24 x 156s (69 vehicles) have been replaced by 43 Turbostars (102 vehicles), which is a reasonable (27%) capacity increase. So the question is - what are EMR doing with them?

Lots of the Liverpools are booked 5 and 6 car now and even then can leave people behind at busy times - and those trains are actually profitable.

Skegness is a distress purchase and despite the experience the passengers show no signs of not returning, they come back regardless.

 

[Qwerty133]

EMR now have more stock in their regional fleet than was the case when it was just the 15x fleets. The 21 x 153s and 24 x 156s (69 vehicles) have been replaced by 43 Turbostars (102 vehicles), which is a reasonable (27%) capacity increase. So the question is - what are EMR doing with them?

Probably Liverpool to Norwich. Unfortunately the planned removal of the Nottingham to Liverpool section (for which there is of course alternative services which is not the case for Skegness) which would have forced EMR to focus on the East Midlands never occurred to the detriment of services in the region. The Skegness services worked perfectly fine under central trains when Birmingham commuter units could be used in the East Midlands at weekends and management didn’t play favourites.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Lots of the Liverpools are booked 5 and 6 car now and even then can leave people behind at busy times - and those trains are actually profitable.

Skegness is a distress purchase and despite the experience the passengers show no signs of not returning, they come back regardless.

But if someone gets left behind at Nottingham for Sheffield or at Manchester for Liverpool the impact is much smaller thanks to the availability of other services. EMR really needs to focus on the demand for the likes of Matlock and Skegness and allow other TOCs to pick up the extra passengers displaced by the reduced capacity on Liverpool services.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Why do we accept a railway that simply isn't fit for purpose?

If you've been following the NHS, roads, armed forces, education etc. you know the answer. If not you can work it out. Rail isn't an exception.

 

[Qwerty133]

If you've been following the NHS, roads, armed forces, education etc. you know the answer. If not you can work it out. Rail isn't an exception.

I don’t know about the armed forces but in the NHS and Education the largest issue is the presence of an extremely large number of staff who believe the services exist in order to give them jobs rather than to provide the service they are meant to provide and equality managers who are more concerned about ticking boxes than meeting the demands of the service.

 

[bramling]

Skegness is a distress purchase

One could say that the prospect of going on holiday in Skegness is also a distress purchase.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

At least these days the days of a single 153 heading to Matlock are long gone

This will be part of where the extra capacity has gone. Single 153s on routes like Derby-Crewe, Peterborough-Doncaster-Lincoln, Grimsby etc now have to be minimum 2-car trains. Not a bad thing all in all, but it does mean the extra capacity isn’t as thickly spread as it might have been.

 

[LowLevel]

Probably Liverpool to Norwich. Unfortunately the planned removal of the Nottingham to Liverpool section (for which there is of course alternative services which is not the case for Skegness) which would have forced EMR to focus on the East Midlands never occurred to the detriment of services in the region. The Skegness services worked perfectly fine under central trains when Birmingham commuter units could be used in the East Midlands at weekends and management didn’t play favourites.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==


But if someone gets left behind at Nottingham for Sheffield or at Manchester for Liverpool the impact is much smaller thanks to the availability of other services. EMR really needs to focus on the demand for the likes of Matlock and Skegness and allow other TOCs to pick up the extra passengers displaced by the reduced capacity on Liverpool services.

The problem is the orders of magnitude. On Friday I had a busy Skegness service formed of 4 carriages, owing to the EMT refurbishment deleting almost all luggage space it struggled but it topped off at about 200 passengers and felt very busy.

On Saturday I had a Liverpool service. 5 carriages full front to back with some left behind en route, probably getting on for 700 people on the train.

Knocking out 2 coaches from the Liverpool train would never have been made up for by the other trains on the route. I suspect there were more people standing on the 5 car 170 than seats on a 2 car 150 or 195.