BRIGG RAILWAY LINE MASTER ACTION PLAN

FROM PAUL JOHNSON, FRIENDS OF THE BRIGG & LINCOLN LINES RAIL GROUP

On Friday 9th May at Gainsborough Central Station, Bill Newton Dunn, the MEP for the East Midlands, launched in partnership with the Friends of The Brigg & Lincoln Lines Rail Group, GRaB ( Gainsborough Rail and Bus Group ) and Lincolnshire Railfuture the Brigg Line Master Action Plan.

These 3 action plans come from the 3 meetings that were held at Brigg, Kirton In Lindsey and Gainsborough they include the short, medium and long term goals for the railway line and its surroundings including an improved railway service in the near future.

The Sheffield Midland - Cleethorpes via Brigg line was issued with a closure notice between Gainsborough and Brigg in the late 1980's, early 1990's, the only way the line could be saved from closure was to put in a parliamentary passenger train service, this is a service or services that run infrequently and have no benefit to the travelling public but would require a act of parliament to then close the line.

The " Brigg " line has therefore had an iconic " Saturday Only " train service of 3 trains each way from Sheffield to Cleethorpes since 1993, of course since then rail travel has boomed but the Brigg line has always been left behind, this is why the Friends of the Brigg Line railway group was formed and working with partners we will be presenting a case to the Department for Transport to highlight the need for a new realistic train service from the start of the new Northern Rail franchise in early 2016.

The situation is quite simple, more trains means more passengers which in turns means more visitors which is turn will stimulate economic growth, improve prospects for local businesses and provide more employment, whilst complementing local efforts to re-invigorate shopping and business areas near the railway,

Please can we ask that if you have not done so can you please sign the action plan petition using the link below.

• You can sign in either with Facebook or Twitter or if you do not have access to these please just fill in your name or business name, e-mail address and leave a comment of support in the top right box.

It is very important that we get as many people to sign this petition as this will be presented to the Department for Transport along with a video that GRaB have been doing to promote each area of the line along with our case for better services along the line.

Please feel free to e-mail this information to as many contacts as you know, as the whole future of the passenger services on this line depends on us presenting a good case of support .

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gainsborough-rail-action-plan