Cleethorpes railway station

Cleethorpes railway station is a terminal railway station serving the seaside town of Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire, England. The station is managed by TransPennine Express, with East Midlands Railway and Northern services also using the station.

Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes railway station in 2012
Location	Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire England
Coordinates	53.5626°N 0.029°W
Grid reference	TA306090
Managed by	TransPennine Express
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	CLE
Classification	DfT category D
History
Original company	Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
6 April 1863	opened
Passengers
2015/16	0.260 million
2016/17	0.288 million
2017/18	0.285 million
2018/19	0.296 million
2019/20	0.274 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Former Cleethorpes Railway Station Buildings (1884)
Designated	17 September 1980
Reference no.	1161596[1]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Passenger lines of North East Lincolnshire
Hull Corporation Pier Barton- on-Humber Humber Ferry Barrow Haven New Holland Pier New Holland engine shed New Holland Town New Holland Goxhill East Halton Killingholme Admiralty Platform Thornton Abbey Killingholme Thornton Curtis Immingham West Jn Immingham Western Jetty Ulceby Aerodrome Platform Humber Road Jn Ulceby North Jn Immingham Dock Ulceby Dock Entrance Immingham engine shed Immingham Eastern Jetty Immingham Queens Road Immingham Dock Immingham Town Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock Sheffield– Lincoln line & South Humberside Main Line Immingham Halt Habrough Kiln Lane Stallingborough Marsh Road LC Healing No.5 Passing Place Great Coates Great Coates LC Pyewipe Depot Halt Pyewipe car sheds Cleveland Bridge Grimsby Pyewipe Road West Marsh Jn East Marsh Jn Cleveland Street Stortford Street Grimsby Town Boulevard Recreation Ground East Lincolnshire Rlwy to Boston Jackson Street Grimsby engine shed Yarborough Street Grimsby Docks Corporation Bridge Grimsby Pier Riby Street Platform New Clee Cleethorpes Kingsway (CCLR) Discovery Lakeside Central North Sea Lane Humberston North Sea Lane Beach South Sea Lane Lincolnshire Coast Lt Rly 1960–1985

History

The station opened on Easter Monday, 6 April 1863[2] when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway extended the line from Grimsby into the town.

The station buildings were constructed in 1884[1] with refreshment rooms and a clocktower by John Mann Lockerbie and Arthur Wilkinson of Birmingham. Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale used the station on 2 July 1885 when he visited Cleethorpes to open the promenade and gardens facing the sea constructed by H.B James CE of Westminster for the railway company.[3]

The station layout was remodelled in 1889 to give six platforms and two carriage sidings extending in the direction of Grimsby. By 1891 the carriage sidings had been increased to six and extended to a new signal box at Suggitt's Lane. This layout also included a turntable to the rear of the signal box. A 1910 report into work carried out the previous year refers to new crossovers to enable trains to arrive and depart from any platform. The signal box by this time had 100 levers and was jointly the third largest on the Great Central system with Marylebone. The original GCR station buildings on platform one were replaced by the current single storey structure on 14 July 1961,[4][5] but they still stand and are now used as train crew accommodation.

Until 1985 the station and surrounding area was still controlled by a mechanical signal box with full semaphore signalling, including double track throughout to Grimsby and beyond. However, a resignalling scheme for the entire area saw the line to Grimsby singled & the number of platforms reduced to four (numbers 1–3 and 5). Platform 5 was renumbered 4 and the Diesel Fuelling Road is what used to be platform 6. The signal box was closed & demolished and new colour light signals installed which were operated from a panel in the signal box at Pasture Street in Grimsby. In later works the platform surfaces have been rebuilt to modern specifications. Since January 2016, all signalling here is supervised from the Rail Operating Centre at York.

In the 1970s Cleethorpes had a twice daily return service to London King's Cross, typically hauled by a Class 55 Deltic.

Even after resignalling until the withdrawal of locomotive hauled cross-Pennine services and the through London King's Cross service, evening time at Cleethorpes was a very busy time with most arrivals requiring cleaning through the carriage washer, fuelling on the small fuel point and shunting into the various departure positions for the following morning. Locomotives returned to the diesel depot at Immingham for overnight servicing, and the High Speed Train from King's Cross was fuelled at the fuelling point at the rear of what used to be called Hawkeys Cafe via a siding that went round the back of the Wash Plant control building and joined up with the old Platform 6 road.

The station building on platform 1 was deemed unsafe and closed in 2001,[6] leaving only platforms 2 and 3 in use. Platform 1 had reopened by 2007, and all platforms were fitted with new information displays. Other platforms at the station remain unused, and are in a state of neglect as sand has blown from the nearby beach onto the lines and formed drifts. Platform 1 is normally used by TransPennine Express services to Manchester Airport, platform 2 for Northern services to Barton-on-Humber, whilst platform 3 is usually used only for early morning and late evening TransPennine Express services, and the Northern Saturday-only service to Sheffield via Brigg and Retford.

First TransPennine Express built a small depot, to provide stabling, light maintenance and re-fuelling at Cleethorpes for its DMU fleet. The Class 153 units used by both East Midlands Railway and Northern do not berth here overnight but work in and out either in service or empty from Lincoln.

Facilities

The station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open 06:45-19:30 Mondays to Saturdays and 09:00-19:30 on Sundays. A self-service ticket machine is provided on the concourse for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are toilets, a waiting room and refreshment facilities (a public house) also located on the concourse. Customer help points, timetable posters and CIS displays are located on both the concourse and each platform. All platforms have step-free access.[7]

The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving, it is in the same area as Grimsby Docks, New Clee and Grimsby stations.

Services

• TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express operate an hourly service to Manchester Airport via Sheffield and Doncaster along their South TransPennine route via the South Humberside Main Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Styal Line. A number of services to/from Sheffield also start or end here.[8]

• East Midlands Railway

East Midlands Railway operate a very limited timetable at Cleethorpes with just one morning train from Cleethorpes to Newark North Gate and one evening train from there to Cleethorpes (which then returns to Lincoln) on Monday to Friday. They operate three services each way on Sundays to/from the station in the summer months to and from Nottingham, via Lincoln.[9]

• Northern Trains

Northern operate a two-hourly weekdays and Saturday service to Barton-on-Humber (with bus connections to Hull).[10]

On Saturdays Northern Trains also operate three services to Sheffield via Brigg.

Proposed services and future changes

In August 2007, after National Express East Coast was awarded the InterCity East Coast franchise, it proposed to start services between Lincoln and London King's Cross from December 2010 with one morning service and one evening service extending from Lincoln to Cleethorpes giving Cleethorpes a link to London and calling at Grimsby Town and Market Rasen. These services were to be operated using the Class 180s but was never introduced. These services were scrapped when East Coast took over the franchise.[11][12][13]

In 2008, Hull Trains applied for a new service from London to Harrogate as well as a Cleethorpes to London service calling at: Barnetby, Market Rasen, Lincoln Central, Sleaford, Donnington Parkway (new station), Spalding, Peterborough, Huntingdon, Stevenage and London Kings Cross under the First Harrogate Trains brand. In 2009, it was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulations.[14][15][16]

Alliance Rail Holdings wanted to establish a rail link between Cleethorpes and London King's Cross, calling at Grimsby Town, Habrough, Scunthorpe and Doncaster. This service would have been introduced by December 2017 if the plans had been accepted by the Office of Rail & Road (ORR) and would have created the first direct link to London since 1986.[17] In May 2016 the ORR rejected the track access application.[18]

In August 2019, services between Cleethorpes and Barton-on-Humber were due to transfer from Northern to East Midlands Railway, however as of December 2019 this has not yet happened and the Barton services remain with Northern.[19]

In July 2017, Virgin Trains East Coast were in talks about extending the Lincoln to London service to Cleethorpes in the future providing a direct service to London for the first time in 25 years.[20]

In December 2017, Grand Central announced plans to bid for a service from London Kings Cross to Cleethorpes in early 2018 for a date of 2020. It would involve the existing Bradford Interchange service extended to 10 coaches from London to Doncaster then dividing with 5 coaches going to Cleethorpes via Scunthorpe, Barnetby, Habrough & Grimsby Town.[21] Grand Central plans 4 trains per day from London Kings Cross to Cleethorpes.[22]

Informed sources close to LNER reported in June 2019, that LNER would like to extend a number of trains from Lincoln Central to Cleethorpes in the future, but it would take time to do this as the route will need to be checked to see whether the Azuma trains are cleared to use the route.[23]

From December 2019, TransPennine Express will introduce an extra early morning and later evening service to Sheffield as well as hourly stops at Habrough.[24]

In January 2021, the Department for Transport opened a consultation on proposals to improve services around Manchester and improve reliability with the options proposed by the Manchester Recovery Taskforce. Options B and C proposed the Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes service be diverted to Liverpool Lime Street via Manchester Piccadilly instead of running to the airport, providing a direct link to Liverpool and Warrington. If either of these options are chosen, the changes would come into force in May 2022.[25]

References

Notes

1. Historic England. "Former Cleethorpes Railway Station Buildings (1884) (1161596)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
2. "On Easter Monday". Louth and North Lincolnshire Advertiser. England. 11 April 1863. Retrieved 3 March 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
3. "The Royal Visit to Grimsby and Cleethorpes". Louth and North Lincolnshire Chronicle. England. 3 July 1885. Retrieved 3 March 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. Body, p.46
5. "Reconstruction of Cleethorpes Station" Railway Gazette 18 August 1961 pages 192, 194
6. "Regional News" Rail issue 421 31 October 2001 page 22
7. Cleethorpes station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 23 January 2017
8. GB National Rail Timetable December 2016, Table 29
9. GB National Rail Timetable December 2016, Table 27
10. Table 28 National Rail timetable, December 2016
11. "England - Lincolnshire - London route 'will boost county'". BBC News. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
12. Bowker wins East Coast with £1.4bn premium Rail issue 573 29 August 2007 page 8
13. "Today's Railways Issue 86"
14. Hull Trains - Track Access Rights on the East coast Main Line Archived 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine Office of the Rail Regulator 19 March 2008
15. "Three companies want East Coast paths" Today's Railways UK issue 78 June 2008 page 6
16. "Hull Trains applies to serve Harrogate four times a day" Rail issue 594 18 June 2008 page 12
17. "£130m plan could see direct superfast trains to London from Cleethorpes and Grimsby" Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Grimsby Telegraph news article 28 February 2014; retrieved 11 May 2016
18. "ORR approves new East Coast rail services"RZD Partner Publishing; Retrieved 10 June 2016
19. "Route 31 timetable" (PDF). Northern. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
20. Daly, Patrick (25 July 2017). "New hope of a direct train service between Cleethorpes and London". Grimsby Telegraph. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
21. "Rail firm reveals bid for direct Cleethorpes to London trains". Grimsby Telegraph. 27 December 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
22. "New rail charges could disrupt plan to run direct trains to Grimsby". Grimsby Telegraph. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
23. Harby, David (June 2019). "Weekday service returns to Gainsborough Central". Rail Lincs. No. 84. p. 2. ISSN 1350-0031. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
24. RAIL issue 885 p.45
25. Manchester Recovery Task Force Public Consultation p. 14 - 17 Gov.UK 14 January 2021

Bibliography

• "Signal Box Diagrams No.14 – Cleethorpes" by Roger Milnes and John Bennett, Forward, the journal of the Great Central Railway Society, No. 83, August 1991. ISSN 0141-4488
• Body, G. (1986), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region, Volume 1, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 0-85059-712-9

External links

• Train times and station information for Cleethorpes railway station from National Rail
• Photos of Cleethorpes Station & Approaches in the 1980s