Passenger serviceson the line are provided by Northern however the trains crews are provided by TransPennine Express as Northern does not have any train crew based in Cleethorpes to run the service. Passenger services on the line was due to switch to East Midlands Railway from the start of the new franchise in August 2019, but this transfer has been deferred until at least December 2020. Freight services previously served the chemical works at Barton-upon-Humber and the sidings at. Services are operated by one Class 153 unit every two hours in each direction on weekdays. Sunday trains only run during the summer months. Before Class 153s started operating Class 142s and Class 150s DMU sets were used. On Mondays – Saturday, the first service of the day from to, the 06:00 departure, and the 06:58 return was operated by a First TransPennine ExpressClass 185, although this service did not call at and due to the low platforms. This practice ceased at the December 2013 timetable change and the first train from Cleethorpes now serves all intermediate stations other than New Clee, which is currently served by trains on request during daylight hours only. Since the closure of the chemical plant no scheduled freight services operate on the route, though occasional trainloads have operated from the bulk grain terminal at New Holland.
Infrastructure
The line is mostly double track, except for the sections at each end and the connecting curve between and. The eastern portion of the route as far as Habrough is shared with the South Humberside Main Line to and, whilst the short section either side of Ulceby also forms part of the busy freight artery between and the Port of Immingham. West of Ulceby the line is double as far as Oxmarsh Crossing, reverting to single for the final to the terminus at Barton. This section has several manual signal boxes with semaphore signalling and manned & gated level crossings in operation. Network Rail are planning to re-signal the line in 2015–16, with control passing to the York Rail Operating Centre – the level crossings on the line will then be automated and the existing signal box at Ulceby Junction abolished.
History
The to section of the line follows the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway, opened in 1848. This subsequently became part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and eventually the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 Grouping. The line was extended to Cleethorpes by the MS&LR in 1863, with a branch from Goxhill to the docks at Immingham added in 1911. The line was particularly busy during the Second World War, as it served RAF airfields at Goxhill and Killingholme in addition to the various industrial installations in the area. The line was twice proposed for closure in the 1960s, but was reprieved on each occasion. Prior to the opening of the Humber Bridge in June 1981, passenger services ran via where they connected with the Humber Ferry service across the Humber to Corporation Pier in Hull but after the bridge was commissioned the ferry service was withdrawn and a new chord line and replacement station provided at New Holland to allow trains to run directly to and from Barton. Since then, the connection to/from Hull has been provided by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire bus over the bridge and now operates out of Hull Paragon Interchange. The service ran hourly until the spring of 1990, but was cut to the current two-hourly pattern at that year's timetable change by British Rail due to unreliability and a shortage of rolling stock. The winter Sunday service also suffered the same fate in 1999 following the abolition of Humberside County Council and subsequent withdrawal of funding by the replacement unitary authorities.
