The 25th anniversary of Brigg losing its Monday to Friday passenger train service was marked at the town's station yesterday Monday (October 1, 2018) on what was a black day for local public transport.
Back in 1993 the railway authorities reduced the Brigg line to Saturdays only, in terms of passenger trains.
And despite prolonged campaigning for better services, no improvements have been forthcoming.
Brigg Line campaigner Paul Johnson - pictured above, left - paid the station a visit with black balloons to mark the sad milestone.
Also in evidence on platform one was the Grim Reaper's scythe, to signify the death of the Monday to Friday train service a quarter-of-a century ago.
Recent years saw a steady rise in the number of passengers using Brigg station.
However, a number of factors, including current industrial action affecting trains, have resulted in a decline.
So be sure to check in advance with Northern, the train operator, if you are intending to make a Saturday journey along the iconic Brigg line in the weeks ahead.
When trains provided by the Northern company ARE running, you can get from Brigg to Gainsborough, Retford, Sheffield, Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Plus - closer to home - Kirton Lindsey and Barnetby.
Call Northern on 0800 200 60 60 (24-hour service).
While at Brigg station on Monday, we noted that the current six-monthly timetable will end in December.
It will be interesting to see if the next, covering the period December 2018 to May 2019, features any new timings - or even additional trains. We can but hope!
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| The current timetable ends on December 8, 2018. |
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| One of the black balloons marking the reduction 25 years ago of Brigg's passenger train service to Saturdays only. |
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| A sad scene on October 1, 2018 at Brigg railway station which has not seen a passenger train on a Monday for 25 years. |
Now, Saturday 6th. October will witness a strange occurrence down at the station with four passenger trains running in each direction but carrying neither Guards nor Passengers. Their purpose will be to keep the Drivers' route knowledge up to date as there is only a certain amount of time allowed to pass without driving over any route before a Driver is regarded as having lost that knowledge. These trains are planned to call at Brigg as follows: 08.46 (Sheffield to Barnetby), 10.59 (Barnetby to Retford), 11.50 (Retford to Barnetby), 12.34 (Barnetby to Retford), 13.25 (Retford to Barnetby), 14.09 (Barnetby to Retford), 15.00 (Retford to Barnetby) and 15.42 (Barnetby to Sheffield). Of course the public will not have access to these trains and rightly so but I can't help seeing the irony in this with four round trips during the day being the number of trains that the now defunct campaign group asked for to assess the impact that a moderately improved and more convenient service might have with the people of the area.
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