Skegness railway station

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Skegness

Location

Place

Skegness

Local authority

East Lindsey

Operations

Station code

SKG

Managed by

East Midlands Trains

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

453,456

2005/06 *

415,385

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Skegness from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Skegness railway station serves the seaside resort of Skegness in Lincolnshire, England.

Services are operated by East Midlands Trains which run to and from Nottingham, where services originate or terminate.

1 History
2 Connections
3 Recent History
4 Present Day
5 Future
6 Local Transport Connections
7 Picture Gallery
8 External links

[edit] History

The line to Wainfleet was opened in August 1873 by the Wainfleet and Skegness Railway Company.

Skegness was dubbed "the Blackpool of the East Coast" or "Nottingham by the Sea", and has a mascot, the Jolly Fisherman (designed by John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway), and a slogan - Skegness is so bracing - a reference to the chilly prevailing north-easterly winds that can and frequently do blow off the North Sea.

Up until 1966 the station used to have a goods yard with sheds, however this area along with platform one was demolished between 1980 and 1983. This area is now used as a car park belonging to the nearby government offices.

[edit] Connections

Customers travelling to and from London can catch occasional connections from Grantham for trains to Kings Cross along the East Coast Main Line, and Nottingham for trains to St Pancras along the Midland Main Line.

Customers can catch onward trains from Grantham station to and from Peterborough, Norwich, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Local connections to Lincoln, Newark, Doncaster and Spalding can be caught at Sleaford railway station.

Nottingham is an interchange for journeys to Leicester, Derby and Birmingham.

[edit] Recent History

In 2006, all loco hauled services to Skegness were halted due to the weight of the locos buckling the rails frequently. Now only class 153,156 and 158 trains run all the way to Skegness.

Some trains run to Sleaford and Boston.

[edit] Present Day

The current station has basic toilet facilities, but no disabled at present, and a refreshment/newsagent stall, there is no CCTV in operation at this station and there are no staff patrolling the concourses area except when trains are due to arrive or depart, as the only member of staff at the station doubles up in the ticket office.

Departures to Nottingham are at varied intervals, with gaps of 30 minutes and then 1 hour and 20 minutes (approximately) accordingly. The reason for the odd frequency is that certain services bypass Grantham and need to depart a long while after the previous slow train (which calls at Grantham) in order to arrive in Nottingham at hourly intervals.

During the winter months, train services are reduced because of lower passenger demand. On Winter Sundays there are generally departures in the afternoon only. Summer Sundays have departures from early morning until approximately 8.30pm.

[edit] Future

The station is to be rebuilt within the next two years because of safety concerns about the present structure which has lacked maintenance over the last 35 years. At the rear of the station is the old buffet restaurant and baggage halls which are both completely derelict, there is also a campaign to save the stationmaster's cottage which has also been derelict for a number of years, a decision has been made at the end of March 2008. Network Rail have began work.