REQUEST FOR BRIGG TO LINCOLN TRAIN FARE CHANGES

FROM BARRY COWARD, SECRETARY - GRaB, GAINSBOROUGH, RETFORD AND BRIGG RAIL AND BUS USERS' GROUP

Brigg Line Report for Saturday 25 June
The Cleethorpes Armed Forces Day event attracted crowds of over 100,000 and the railway transported a significant proportion of the visitors to and from Cleethorpes.
Meanwhile on the Brigg Line, Paul Johnson has provided a detailed report of the day’s operation by twin Pacer units offering double the normal capacity. 
2H03 the 08.03 Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg service with its 4 car set pulled into platform 1B at Sheffield Midland to a very full platform. Chaos struck as passengers thought they were boarding the 08.12 TPE service to Cleethorpes. After a number of announcements passengers caught the right train. 
2H03 picked up passengers at Woodhouse 4, Kiveton Bridge 4 , Shireoaks 2,  Worksop 32, Retford 21, Gainsborough Central 23, Kirton in Lindsey 17, Brigg 21. On leaving Brigg the rear unit was full and the front 80% full. Poor crowd control at Grimsby Town and pathing issues on the single line section between Grimsby Town  and Cleethorpes resulted in a 9 minute late arrival at its destination.
Sadly after 2H03 had passed, signalling and points problems affected the Brigg Line in the Barnetby and Brigg areas.
2H00 11.14 Cleethorpes to Sheffield left Cleethorpes 9 minutes late due to pathing issues and continued to lose time until it met the points failure at Barnetby. It reached Brigg 87 minutes late and the passengers that were still waiting to catch the first southbound train were very frustrated with the lack of information as there is no way of  communicating to the platforms at Brigg.
2H05 12.03 Sheffield to Cleethorpes left Brigg on time but got caught in the problems at Barnetby and arrived at Cleethorpes 26 minutes late. Again the issue with single line working between Grimsby Town and Cleethorpes did not help any recovery. 
This unit formed 2H01 15.20 Cleethorpes to Sheffield which left Cleethorpes 18 minutes late and experienced more issues with signal failure at Brigg resulting in the train being 30 minutes late by the time it left Retford.
2H06 16.01 Sheffield to Cleethorpes departed Sheffield at 16.10. Again signalling  issues at Brigg & and Barnetby lead to this train to leave Barnetby 15 minutes late but it managed to recover some time arriving at Cleethorpes 10 minutes late. It was greeted with a platform full of passengers. 
It departed as 2H02 18.32 Cleethorpes to Sheffield 6 minutes late due to an incoming  late East Midlands Trains and awaiting the departure of the 18.26 TPE service to Manchester Airport and 18.20 service to Newark North Gate. The train called additionally at Great Coates, Healing and Stallingborough to drop off passengers unable to board the previous train. Signalling problems continued at Barnetby and 
Brigg. The train departed Gainsborough Central 33 minutes late.

Observations and suggestions
The Cleethorpes Armed Forces day has now become a major event in the calendar. 
While the railway responded with better plans this year they were marred by signalling and point problems. I’m told there are on going point issues at Wraby Junction. In the days of a single management structure (known as British Railways) PW and signal technicians would have been on standby, possibly located in Wraby signal box. Closer co-operation between TOCs and Network Rail whereby a single management structure is established to special events such as this would be desirable.
The single line sections between Grimsby and Cleethorpes severely restricts the opportunity for recovery and a can generate consequential delays. We are aware that Network Rail would like to produce a case for doubling this line throughout.
The control of passengers was in place at Cleethorpes but was not evident at Grimsby, a station with a multitude of entrances and exits conducive to establishing a passenger flow system to control numbers on platforms. 
In the evening 2H06 arriving at Bartneby 15 minutes late enabled it to connect with 2T55 EMT arrival from Lincoln and Market Rasen. In the morning there is a connection at Banetby with EMT 2T30 to Market Rasen and Lincoln. If 2H06 could be retimed to run 15 minutes later from Barnetby this would afford a good opportunity for Brigg passengers to travel Lincoln for the day. 
We continually receive requests from Brigg residents for connections to Lincoln. It would also help if a Brigg to Lincoln fare could be established. At present passengers have to book the Northern and EMT sections of their journey separately as there is no though fare.
Find out more at http://grab.eavb.co.uk

Northern Rail later replied to GRaB:  "The UK National UK Armed Forces event has not previously been held in Cleethorpes, but Cleethorpes has of course celebrated the Armed Forces Day in a regional event. As you may already know, Northern has a well-oiled special event planning machinery which played a very active role in the industry forum leading up to this event. A number of those meetings were multiagency and attended by the event organisers. On the day, we strengthened all our services to capacity (platform lengths permitting) and across all the operators provided a total of 14 standby buses to support the anticipated numbers of people travelling to and from the key events on Saturday."