Every summer, the line between Nottingham (and surrounding areas) and Skegness sees increased volumes of passengers as holiday makers and day trippers travel to the popular seaside resort.
Traditionally, and under the previous franchise operator, arrangements were made to strengthen these services by using trains cascaded from the West Midlands area.
As this is no longer an option available to us, and all of our trains are currently being used to full capacity in order to deliver our normal service, we have been examining all the options available to us to ensure we cater for the large volumes of passengers travelling over the summer.
Plan of Action
Special services
In order to provide extra capacity between Nottingham and Skegness, we will be running an additional seven carriage train every Saturday between now and 6 September. This service will also run on August Bank Holiday Monday (25 August).
This special service, which will be operated by a loco hauled train hired by East Midlands Trains, will leave Nottingham at 10.21 every Saturday, calling at Sleaford (11.07) and Boston (11.29) before arriving at Skegness at 12.46.
It will return from Skegness at 14.30 every Saturday, calling at Boston (15.43) and Sleaford (16.05) before arriving at Nottingham at 16.56.
This service will provide an additional 704 seats each day between Nottingham and Skegness throughout the summer.
Strengthening of timetabled services- Monday 14 August
As a result of the Lincoln improvement work, which will see train services from Lincoln affected between 19 July and 31 August, we will have access to a number of spare trains between these dates.
With these trains, we are planning to strengthen a number of services between Nottingham and Skegness, as follows:
Monday to Friday
06.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
07.59 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
09.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 3 to 6 car
10.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
11.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
12.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
14.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 3 to 6 car
15.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
16.50 Nottingham to Skegness – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
09.38 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
10.03 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
12.06 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 6 car
13.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
14.02 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
15.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
17.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 6 car
18.22 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
19.18 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
Saturday
06.33 Nottingham to Skegness -– service strengthened from 1 to 2 car
06.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
07.55 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
09.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 4 to 5 car
10.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 5 car
11.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
12.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
14.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 4 to 5 car
15.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 5 car
16.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
17.50 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
18.42 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
07.15 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 1 to 2 car
09.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
10.00 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
12.06 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 4 to 5 car
13.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 5 car
14.05 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
15.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
17.32 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 4 to 5 car
18.21 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 5 car
19.18 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
20.20 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
20.59 Skegness to Nottingham - service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
Sunday
09.00 Boston to Skegness -– service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
09.30 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 6 car
11.03 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
13.53 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
14.44 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 6 car
16.46 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
18.09 Nottingham to Skegness - service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
11.10 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
12.35 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 6 car
14.10 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
16.13 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 3 to 4 car
18.06 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 6 car
19.13 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 3 car
20.44 Skegness to Nottingham – service strengthened from 2 to 4 car
Bus services
In order to meet passenger demand for travel between Grantham station and Skegness, and with the assistance of our colleagues at Stagecoach Bus, we will be providing direct bus services from Grantham to Skegness and Butlin’s Holiday Camp.
All bus services will connect with National Express East Coast services from the north.
In addition to these dedicated services, standby buses will also be provided at Nottingham, Sleaford, Boston and Skegness on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays.
Additional customer service staff
With the large volumes of passengers travelling, we recognise the need to have additional staff on hand to help answer any queries or help with travel arrangements. For that reason, we have arranged additional staff to be available at Nottingham, Grantham and Skegness.
In order to let people know about our plans for Skegness services over the summer, we will be embarking on a customer communications campaign to include posters and leaflets at appropriate stations and dedicated information provided on our website, eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. We’ll also be liaising with local media and Butlin’s at Skegness to get the message out. If there’s anything that you can do to help us to spread the message, or if we can provide further information for your website or newsletter, then please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We hope that this gives you a good overview of our plans for this summer, and provides you with reassurance that we are doing our very best with the resources available to us.