Efforts being made to improve public transport in North Lincolnshire on Sundays will be of interest to a good many people living in the Brigg area.
FROM KIRSTY WESTFIELD, NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL
North Lincolnshire Council supports plans put forward by TransPennine Express and Northern Rail to improve Sunday services between Manchester Airport and Cleethorpes, and some enhancements to the weekday service.
The plans include new Sunday services between Cleethorpes and Manchester Airport, as well as more train times added for Saturdays and in the week. These new TransPennine Express services are expected to be implemented in December 2017.
Northern Rail is proposing changes to services from May 2018. These include extended train times between Scunthorpe and Sheffield.
Cllr Richard Hannigan, Cabinet Member for Safer, Greener and Cleaner Places, said: "We welcome these plans for improved railway services in North Lincolnshire. TransPennine Express and Northern Rail’s plans offer an improved service for residents, especially on Sundays.
“We are working with the providers to secure even more improvements for railway services in North Lincolnshire.”
N.F. ADDS: This is welcome news for local rail travellers. But if/when the extra trains arrive, can we expect additional buses to be provided from the Brigg area to connect with them at Barnetby (pictured above) and Scunthorpe stations? Integrated public transport is surely the goal. Below are pictures of the No 68 Wold Villager, Hornsby No 4 and CallConnect buses in Cary Lane, Brigg. But which will running to get you to the railway station on time on time if extra Sunday trains are added? And how frequently?
The question that I would ask is how exactly are Northern's proposals improvements? What is going to happen is this:
ReplyDelete1. The through stopping service between Scunthorpe and Sheffield is to be split at
Doncaster so that any through journeys across the latter will no longer be possible
without changing trains.
2. The truncated Scunthorpe to Doncaster serrvice will use the recently completed platform
0 at Doncaster meaning a much longer walk and potentially up to four flights of stairs
to gain access to other parts of the station.
3. The re-timing of this service will also destroy the long established connection at
Scunthorpe between the stopping service and Trans Pennine's Cleethorpes to Manchester
service making journeys from the likes of Thorne, Crowle and Althorpe to
Grimsby/Cleethorpes less convenient than is now the case.
Whilst the filling of a two-hour gap between a couple of Trans Pennine trains on Sundays
along with the possibility of a slightly earlier start to the service than is now the case
will be most welcome this is not the massive improvement that our Local Authority seems to think is the case; far from it, it is a deterioration and one which North Lincolnshire Council should be shouting about. Poor quality and inattentive people again who can't read a timetable I'm afraid.