UK: A user group has criticised changes to passenger services on the Brigg line which are due to come into effect with the May 20 timetable change. This will see Northern’s current service of three Cleethorpes – Brigg – Kirton Lindsey – Sheffield trains each way on Saturdays only replaced by one train each way per day from Monday to Friday.
Northern’s Regional Director Tony Baxter said the decision was ‘designed to improve reliability and provide greater resilience’. Coupled with timetable changes elsewhere on the network, it would ‘ensure our overall timetable supports long-term value for a sustainable future, given rail industry cost challenges. Community Rail Network has recently funded a bus that will offer travel to Cleethorpes on Saturdays.’
The Independent Brigg Line Rail Group said the change would mean ‘a serious loss in travel opportunities’ and be ‘another hammer blow for the communities on this line, especially for Brigg and Kirton in Lindsey who already suffer from limited travel options’.
IBLRG suggested that the Saturday-only service could be made more productive with more widely spaced services, advance fares and promotions to increase footfall, but said it had ‘received correspondence from the Department for Transport over the last few years stating that the present train operating company does not wish to improve this service’.
The group believes ‘it’s now time to wish the operator and its associates all the best for the future, as we must find someone else’.
