Grimsby Town railway station


Grimsby Town railway station serves the town of Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire, England. It is operated by TransPennine Express, and is also served by East Midlands Railway and Northern Trains services.

History

Grimsby Town station was opened on 29 February 1848 when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway opened its line from New Holland to Grimsby, and thence by the East Lincolnshire Railway to Louth.
It was the terminus of the East Lincolnshire Line from and via Louth until the line's closure to passengers in October 1970. The remaining line runs east to west, terminating at Cleethorpes on the northeast Lincolnshire seafront, and runs west to Habrough where the line to Barton-upon-Humber branches northwards, and further to Barnetby, where at Wrawby Junction the line splits into three, going to Scunthorpe/Doncaster/Sheffield, Gainsborough/Retford/Sheffield and Market Rasen/Lincoln/Newark.
On 13 November 1907 a fireman was killed in an accident at the station when oiling his locomotive, five trucks were shunted on to the end of the train. The impact sent the train forward and the fireman was trapped in the machinery. He could not be extricated without the engine being reversed and backed to the original place, and this action resulted in him being mangled in the machinery and he was killed.
In a collision on 15 July 1930, 32 people were injured when a train from New Holland crashed into an express train from Sheffield which was stationary in Grimsby Station.
The station was refurbished by First TransPennine Express in 2007/2008. Brand new departure screens have been fitted and are now in use, along with an automated announcement system. The ticket office has also been refurbished, the refurbishment includes new lighting, seating, flooring and a refurbished ticket desk. The waiting room on platform 2 and the station buffet have also been refurbished. Two new lifts at a cost of £2 million were installed in 2011 and were opened by Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell on Tuesday 19 July 2011.
In December 2017, the announcement system was changed from Rob Randall with SIEMENS, to ATOS Anne, which is now the announcement system in use across the TransPennine Express network.

Description

The station has three platforms in use, with an overall roof covering platforms 1 and 2. Platform 1 is the main eastbound through platform, whilst platform 2 is the corresponding platform for westbound trains but is also signalled for eastbound services if required. Platform 3 is the outer face of the southern island platform and is located outside the train shed - this was formerly a through platform used by Doncaster and Lincoln trains but is now only accessible from the west and is normally used by EMR trains from the Lincoln direction that turn back here. The main facilities are all located on platform 1.
The ticket office is manned daily from 06:00 /05:30 /08:45 until 19:30. A self-service ticket machine is also available at the station entrance for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. Customer help points are available on platforms 1 and 2 and step-free access is available to all platforms.
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 and Cleethorpes stations.

Services

The station is served on weekdays by TransPennine Express trains between Cleethorpes and Manchester Airport via Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly, Northern services between Cleethorpes and Barton-On-Humber local stopping service and by East Midlands Railway services to Lincoln and Newark. Three Northern trains to and from Sheffield via Retford also operate on Saturdays only.
Sundays see a two-hourly service to Manchester in the morning, increasing to hourly in the afternoon. A limited service to Barton and Lincoln operates during the summer months only.

Proposed 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 had put forward proposals in 2014 to create 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 Alliance Rail's plans had been accepted by the Office of Rail & Road and would create the first direct link to London since 1986. In May 2016, it was announced by the ORR that GNER had been refused permission to operate these services.
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.
Following the release of the Invite to tender for the next East Midlands franchise in June 2018, it was announced that as part of the next East Midlands franchise that from the December 2021 timetable change, the Lincoln service will become hourly and that there must be at least 13 trains per day from Nottingham to Lincoln Central and 14 trains per day from Lincoln to Nottingham will extend to Grimsby Town. This was confirmed in April 2019 when it was announced that as part of the new East Midlands Railway franchise that Grimsby will get hourly services to Nottingham via Lincoln Central as well as new Sunday service introduced between Grimsby and Lincoln, replacing the current two-hourly service to however early morning and late evening services from Newark Northgate will continue to extend to. On 9 May 2019, following the end of the standstill period, Abellio confirmed they planned to extend the Leicester service to Grimsby Town, giving Grimsby its first regular direct trains to Leicester and Nottingham in over 10 years. The Leicester to Lincoln service will initially be extended to Grimsby Town every two hours from December 2020, replacing the Newark Northgate service but this will later become hourly from December 2021.
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, whether there is enough track capacity and whether there is a sufficient business case.