Brigg Line quick questions

[Gathursty]

1) Has anything ran down the line since Northern withdrew it's services?
2) If no, what did the signallers/crossing keepers do in the meantime?

 

[_toommm_]

Northern do route retention trips every Saturday, ironically in the exact same paths as the axed services. They don’t always run, but they did fairly recently IIRC.

 

[mocko]

I have family living by the Brigg line so I'm often there.

Even without passenger service you get route retention (1-2 out & back trips to Cleethorpes) on Saturday. In the week we have the engineering unit from Retford going out for maintenance work near Goxhill and the odd coal empties from West Burton PS. There's also a bi-weekly visit by a track assessment train, usually the yellow HST but sometimes a 37. Many days it won't see any traffic at all but there certainly is some.

A few times a year, usually on a Sunday, when the Scunthorpe like is shut for maintenance, there will also be diversionary traffic. This mostly takes the form of steel products for Scunthorpe works with the loco running round the train at Barnetby.

 

[Crossover]

Looking at RTT, passenger services look to be scheduled to return at the next TT change in December

 

[tbtc]

Imagine trying to explain this to a non-enthusiast, who’s not used to some of the “idiosyncrasies” of the railway…

“Northern have stopped running trains on the Brigg line because they don’t have enough staff/ trains… so instead they are running empty trains unavailable to the public at the exact same times, to keep staff training up to date, in case they ever do decide to start running them again”

But, who’s going to hold the Operator Of Last Resort to accountability over anything? They can just cancel services without about contract breaches, and then add insult to injury by continuing to run the services just not allowing passengers on board… It’s too far fetched for fiction but yet seems perfectly normal on in “GBR-land”

Imagine if Private Eye etc got their hands on this?

 

[RT4038]

Imagine trying to explain this to a non-enthusiast, who’s not used to some of the “idiosyncrasies” of the railway…

“Northern have stopped running trains on the Brigg line because they don’t have enough staff/ trains… so instead they are running empty trains unavailable to the public at the exact same times, to keep staff training up to date, in case they ever do decide to start running them again”

But, who’s going to hold the Operator Of Last Resort to accountability over anything? They can just cancel services without about contract breaches, and then add insult to injury by continuing to run the services just not allowing passengers on board… It’s too far fetched for fiction but yet seems perfectly normal on in “GBR-land”

Imagine if Private Eye etc got their hands on this?

I doubt many would care. And as for Private Eye, a niche magazine at best, post #2 says it all - They don't always run. So not advertising them and conveying passengers , on a line which is an irrelevance to mainstream transport services, is not really a big deal.

 

[Taunton]

on a line which is an irrelevance to mainstream transport services,

So if the line is an irrelevance to mainstream transport services, why keep training for it?

 

[Carlisle]

So if the line is an irrelevance to mainstream transport services, why keep training for it?

Couldn’t agree more, unless they’re proposing a daily service at a frequency level useful to at least some potential regulars, don’t bother.

 

[mikeg]

Couldn’t agree more, unless they’re proposing a daily service at a frequency level useful to at least some potential regulars , don’t bother.

The odd thing is this might be successful. With all the talk of 'restoring your railway' maybe we should pick the low hanging fruit of giving parly service lines a decent service, even if for a couple of years on a 'use it or lose it' basis. It worked on the line via Melksham, which was slightly above a parliamentary service, and that line became one of the fastest growing lines in GWR area.

Why a couple of years? It would give enough time to see the impact, without being too burdensome on funding.

 

[Taunton]

The odd thing is this might be successful. With all the talk of 'restoring your railway' maybe we should pick the low hanging fruit of giving parly service lines a decent service, even if for a couple of years on a 'use it or lose it' basis. It worked on the line via Melksham, which was slightly above a parliamentary service, and that line became one of the fastest growing lines in GWR area.

If I remember correctly, the Chippenham-Melksham-Trowbridge line went through the full closure process in the mid-1960s, but was retained for freight, and found to be useful for diversions. There were always some surprising freight terminals at Melksham, for bulk milk (out), oil and stone (inwards) trains. It is only in more recent times that passenger services very slowly came back to the line, initially nonstop. There was at first a Plymouth to Paddington service that went this way, stopping at Westbury and Swindon. Light engines from the West to Swindon works also went this way.

 

[geoffk]

The odd thing is this might be successful. With all the talk of 'restoring your railway' maybe we should pick the low hanging fruit of giving parly service lines a decent service, even if for a couple of years on a 'use it or lose it' basis. It worked on the line via Melksham, which was slightly above a parliamentary service, and that line became one of the fastest growing lines in GWR area.

Why a couple of years? It would give enough time to see the impact, without being too burdensome on funding.

Stockport - Stalybridge would be another, the main issue I suppose being available paths. And Clitheroe - Hellifield.

 

[standish1]

Not mentioned by anybody the daily regular oil trains

 

[Revilo]

I doubt many would care. And as for Private Eye, a niche magazine at best, post #2 says it all - They don't always run. So not advertising them and conveying passengers , on a line which is an irrelevance to mainstream transport services, is not really a big deal.

I think it is a big deal, on the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ principle. If they can cancel all the services on the Brigg line and it’s stations’ only services, what’s to stop them running down and then closing other lines/stations in the same way by stealth? It makes a mockery of the process that’s supposed to be followed to close lines and stations.

 

[Freightmaster]

Not mentioned by anybody the daily regular oil trains

What daily regular oil trains?




MARK

 

[Rich_D3167]

Not mentioned by anybody the daily regular oil trains

There are no regular daily booked freights on the Brigg line at all, yet alone oil. The only regular oil trains in the area are via Lincoln or Scunthorpe. Brigg only sees regular freight diversions, usually every 6 weeks on weekday nights, the previously mentioned 4-weekly PLPR test train, & the sporadic coal with Freightliner or GBRf, but they are just that: VERY sporadic.

 

[IBLRG]

Passenger services are supposed to return now on December 31st.

This will be a whole calendar year since the last service called at Brigg and Kirton in Lindsey.

Lots of anger within the local communities that a rail replacement bus was not at least put in place, communities also want a replacement operator to take over from Northern.

 

[Llandudno]

Passenger services are supposed to return now on December 31st.

This will be a whole calendar year since the last service called at Brigg and Kirton in Lindsey.

Lots of anger within the local communities that a rail replacement bus was not at least put in place, communities also want a replacement operator to take over from Northern.

Be careful what you wish for or you might end up with TransPennine!

 

[70014IronDuke]

... And as for Private Eye, a niche magazine at best, ...

Oh, sure.

Tell an MP he's in the latest Private Eye - and watch him/her run to the toilet.

Very niche.

 

[class68fan]

If I remember correctly, the Chippenham-Melksham-Trowbridge line went through the full closure process in the mid-1960s, but was retained for freight, and found to be useful for diversions. There were always some surprising freight terminals at Melksham, for bulk milk (out), oil and stone (inwards) trains. It is only in more recent times that passenger services very slowly came back to the line, initially nonstop. There was at first a Plymouth to Paddington service that went this way, stopping at Westbury and Swindon. Light engines from the West to Swindon works also went this way.

Some pasenger train for about 30 years, recent time?