Cleethorpes railway station


Cleethorpes railway station is a terminal railway station serving the seaside town of Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire, England. The station is managed by TransPennine Express, with East Midlands Railway and Northern services also using the station.

History

The station opened on Easter Monday, 6 April 1863 when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway extended the line from Grimsby into the town.
The station buildings were constructed in 1884 with refreshment rooms and a clocktower by John Mann Lockerbie and Arthur Wilkinson of Birmingham. Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale used the station on 2 July 1885 when he visited Cleethorpes to open the promenade and gardens facing the sea constructed by H.B James CE of Westminster for the railway company.
The station layout was remodelled in 1889 to give six platforms and two carriage sidings extending in the direction of Grimsby. By 1891 the carriage sidings had been increased to six and extended to a new signal box at Suggitt's Lane. This layout also included a turntable to the rear of the signal box. A 1910 report into work carried out the previous year refers to new crossovers to enable trains to arrive and depart from any platform. The signal box by this time had 100 levers and was jointly the third largest on the Great Central system with Marylebone. The original GCR station buildings on platform one were replaced by the current single storey structure on 14 July 1961, but they still stand and are now used as train crew accommodation.
Until 1985 the station and surrounding area was still controlled by a mechanical signal box with full semaphore signalling, including double track throughout to Grimsby and beyond. However, a resignalling scheme for the entire area saw the line to Grimsby singled & the number of platforms reduced to four. Platform 5 was renumbered 4 and the Diesel Fuelling Road is what used to be platform 6. The signal box was closed & demolished and new colour light signals installed which were operated from a panel in the signal box at Pasture Street in Grimsby. In later works the platform surfaces have been rebuilt to modern specifications. Since January 2016, all signalling here is supervised from the Rail Operating Centre at York.
In the 1970s Cleethorpes had a twice daily return service to London King's Cross, typically hauled by a Class 55 Deltic.
Even after resignalling until the withdrawal of locomotive hauled cross-Pennine services and the through London King's Cross service, evening time at Cleethorpes was a very busy time with most arrivals requiring cleaning through the carriage washer, fuelling on the small fuel point and shunting into the various departure positions for the following morning. Locomotives returned to the diesel depot at Immingham for overnight servicing, and the High Speed Train from King's Cross was fuelled at the fuelling point at the rear of what used to be called Hawkeys Cafe via a siding that went round the back of the Wash Plant control building and joined up with the old Platform 6 road.
The station building on platform 1 was deemed unsafe and closed in 2001, leaving only platforms 2 and 3 in use. Platform 1 had reopened by 2007, and all platforms were fitted with new information displays. Other platforms at the station remain unused, and are in a state of neglect as sand has blown from the nearby beach onto the lines and formed drifts. Platform 1 is normally used by TransPennine Express services to Manchester Airport, platform 2 for Northern services to Barton-on-Humber, whilst platform 3 is usually used only for early morning and late evening TransPennine Express services, and the Northern Saturday-only service to via and Retford.
First TransPennine Express built a small depot, to provide stabling, light maintenance and re-fuelling at Cleethorpes for its DMU fleet. The Class 153 units used by both East Midlands Railway and Northern do not berth here overnight but work in and out either in service or empty from Lincoln.

Facilities

The station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open 06:45-19:30 Mondays to Saturdays and 09:00-19:30 on Sundays. A self-service ticket machine is provided on the concourse for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are toilets, a waiting room and refreshment facilities also located on the concourse. Customer help points, timetable posters and CIS displays are located on both the concourse and each platform. All platforms have step-free access.
The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving, it is in the same area as Grimsby Docks, New Clee and Grimsby stations.

Services

TransPennine Express operate an hourly service to Manchester Airport via Sheffield and Doncaster along their South TransPennine route via the South Humberside Main Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Styal Line. A number of services to/from Sheffield also start or end here.
East Midlands Railway operate a very limited timetable at Cleethorpes with just one morning train from Cleethorpes to Newark North Gate and one evening train from there to Cleethorpes on Monday to Friday. They operate three services each way on Sundays to/from the station in the summer months to and from Nottingham, via Lincoln.
Northern operate a two-hourly weekdays and Saturday service to Barton-on-Humber.
On Saturdays Northern Trains also operate three services to Sheffield via Brigg.

Proposed services and future changes

In August 2007, after National Express East Coast was awarded the InterCity East Coast franchise, it proposed to start services between Lincoln and London King's Cross from December 2010 with one morning service and one evening service extending from Lincoln to Cleethorpes giving Cleethorpes a link to London and calling at Grimsby Town and Market Rasen. These services were to be operated using the Class 180s but was never introduced. These services were scrapped when East Coast took over the franchise.
In 2008, Hull Trains applied for a new service from London to Harrogate as well as a Cleethorpes to London service calling at:,,,, Donnington Parkway,,,, and under the First Harrogate Trains brand. In 2009, it was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulations.
Alliance Rail Holdings wanted to establish a rail link between Cleethorpes and London King's Cross, calling at Grimsby Town, Habrough, Scunthorpe and Doncaster. This service would have been introduced by December 2017 if the plans had been accepted by the Office of Rail & Road and would have created the first direct link to London since 1986. In May 2016 the ORR rejected the track access application.
In August 2019, services between Cleethorpes and Barton-on-Humber were due to transfer from Northern to East Midlands Railway, however as of December 2019 this has not yet happened and the Barton services remain with Northern.
In July 2017, Virgin Trains East Coast were in talks about extending the Lincoln to London service to Cleethorpes in the future providing a direct service to London for the first time in 25 years.
In December 2017, Grand Central announced plans to bid for a service from London Kings Cross to Cleethorpes in early 2018 for a date of 2020. It would involve the existing Bradford Interchange service extended to 10 coaches from London to Doncaster then dividing with 5 coaches going to Cleethorpes via Scunthorpe, Barnetby, Habrough & Grimsby Town. Grand Central plans 4 trains per day from London Kings Cross to Cleethorpes.
Informed sources close to LNER reported in June 2019, that LNER would like to extend a number of trains from Lincoln Central to Cleethorpes in the future, but it would take time to do this as the route will need to be checked to see whether the Azuma trains are cleared to use the route.
From December 2019, TransPennine Express will introduce an extra early morning and later evening service to as well as hourly stops at.