43074
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- 10 Oct 2012
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EMR have applied to the Office and Rail and Road to extend the Crewe to Newark Castle services to Lincoln from December 2025. They also appear to be proposing retimings to other EMR Regional routes in Lincolnshire to improve connections with long distance services at Peterborough, Lincoln and Doncaster, and at Sleaford between Lincoln to Peterborough and Nottingham to Skegness trains to "complement" the new East Coast timetable.
I've quoted the relevant section from the Track Access application below:
I've quoted the relevant section from the Track Access application below:
Link to the track access application is here: https://sacuksprodnrdigital0001.blo...th SA Form-P (Castle line) FINAL 20240520.pdfThe EMR regional services between Nottingham and Lincoln suffers from frequent overcrowding, which is constraining demand growth. In the peak period at Nottingham 4 out of 5 services have passengers standing, and at Lincoln many services from late afternoon have more than 90% of seats occupied. The strong demand continues in the off-peak, with weekday services between 10:00 and 15:59 having an average critical load of more than 70%. At weekends the problem is worse, and so far, this calendar year we have had 65 instances of full and standing services on Saturdays. This is only the instances reported by onboard staff to control, many do not get reported. By comparison, on a weekday the Newark Castle services have average loadings of less than 20% in the off-peak, increasing to approximately 50% in the peak.
Therefore, to spread demand and reduce crowding on trains, East Midlands Railway is proposing to extend the slower Newark Castle service to Lincoln. The stopping train has a journey time of 59 minutes, compared to 50-52 minutes on the fast train. Because the trains are evenly spaced from origin, some passengers will switch to the slower service. This will be further encouraged by the extension of Advance Purchase tickets onto the Nottingham to Lincoln route, offering a wider choice of fares and better value for money to passengers. A lower price can be offered to help spread demand onto the slower services.
Alongside plans to increase services on the Castle Line, we have decreased the journey time on LNER services between London King’s Cross and Lincoln by an average of 4 minutes. Our proposed timetable on the Castle Line, has provided an opportunity to provide additional benefits on other parts of the network to complement the East Coast ESG timetable. These include:
Better connections with LDHS services at Peterborough and Doncaster
Improved connections at Sleaford for journeys between Lincoln and Boston / Skegness
Improved connections at Lincoln for journeys between London King’s Cross and Market Rasen / Barnetby / Habrough / Grimsby Town / Cleethorpes
Extension of Nottingham services from Grimsby Town to Cleethorpes.