The station was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway on 2 April 1849. The opening day was a gala occasion, shops were closed and the town was full of visitors. The station off Spring Gardens was crowded with onlookers, and at noon the train whistle was heard in the distance. Some hundreds of people saw 'a veritable locomotive on a line of railway at Gainsborough' for the first time. It came over the track by a wooden trestle bridge across the Humble Carr and backed into the station. The directors of the line and the chief engineer were greeted by leading inhabitants and then went in procession to the old coaching inn, the White Hart, for a champagne lunch. The station buildings were designed by architects Weightman and Hadfield. A substantial stone frontage with full-height portico with 4 attached Roman Ionic columns and triple arcade with moulded round arches. The MS&LR became the Great Central Railway on 1 August 1897, which in turn amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway at the end of 1922. The LNER inherited two stations in Gainsborough, and to distinguish them, the ex-GCR station was renamed Gainsborough Central in September 1923. The station buildings were demolished in 1975, leaving just the two platforms and a footbridge over the two railway lines. Weekday passenger services were withdrawn by British Rail in October 1993 leaving only three trains in each direction running on Saturdays. In the Strategic Rail Authority's 2002/3 financial year, only 5 fare-paying people boarded trains at Gainsborough Central station, and 3 disembarked, making it the least busy station in Great Britain, alongside Barry Links. The 2004/05 figures suggested 21 passengers used the station that year, putting it slightly above Watford West, a station closed since 1996 and on a line which is currently missing both track and bridges. The line through the station was upgraded and refurbished in 2008 by contractors Arup and Carillon to allow it to carry increased levels of freight traffic from the port complex at Immingham to South Yorkshire and the East Midlands. This was done to reduce congestion on the busy route via Scunthorpe. Meanwhile, North Lincolnshire Council was campaigning for the introduction of regular weekday services. This was finally achieved in May 2019 when Northern introduced an hourly service between Gainsborough Central and Sheffield on weekdays and Saturdays, the most regular service the station has received since 1849. Although it falls outside Northern's franchise commitments, the operator agreed to run the service without extra subsidy, with West Lindsey District Council agreeing to fund improvements to the station and signage. The new services utilise trains and crew which would otherwise have waited 40 minutes at Retford. Stopping at all stations, it now allows the Lincoln to Sheffield service to run non-stop between Worksop and Sheffield as part of the new Northern Connect network. Just eight months later however, the regular service was suspended again due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, with no confirmed date of when services will restart.
Location
Gainsborough Central station is situated close to Gainsborough steel stock holders and the new Marshalls Yard Shopping Centre. In late 2008, a new car park was opened next to the station, however this is only for permit holders. Good access is available even for the disabled.
Services
As of May 2019, Gainsborough Central is served by an hourly Monday-Saturday service to via and. On Saturdays, there are also 3 trains that continue to. The station is not served by trains during the evenings or on Sundays. However, passengers can use the nearby Station which continues to operate at these times. Due to the ongoing 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, the hourly service was suspended and currently no trains stop at Gainsborough Central.
