Lincoln Central railway station

Lincoln Central
Location
Place	Lincoln
Local authority	Lincoln
Coordinates	53°13′34″N 0°32′20″W / 53.226°N 0.539°W / 53.226; -0.539Coordinates: 53°13′34″N 0°32′20″W / 53.226°N 0.539°W / 53.226; -0.539
Grid reference	SK976708
Operations
Station code	LCN
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Number of platforms	5
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12	1.655 million
– Interchange	25,447
2012/13	1.634 million
– Interchange	24,309
2013/14	1.610 million
– Interchange	25,767
2014/15	1.650 million
– Interchange	25,994
2015/16	1.754 million
– Interchange	25,832
History
Key dates	Opened 17 October 1848 (17 October 1848)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Lincoln Central from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Lincoln Central railway station serves the city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Trains (EMT) train operating company. EMT provide services along with Northern and Virgin Trains East Coast.

Lincoln Central is now the only station in Lincoln since the closure of Lincoln St. Marks in 1985.^[1] However, it has retained its "Central" suffix, like Rotherham Central. The station building was designed in 1848 for the Great Northern Railway by J H Taylor, in a stone "Baronial" style.

The station is part of the PlusBus scheme, where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving. The main bus station in Lincoln is located on Tentercroft Street, to the railway station's immediate south.

In late 2010 East Midlands Trains announced that it intended to develop an improved customer service area and improve the café and toilets.^[2]

Lincoln Central is included in the Lincoln Transport Hub redevelopment scheme, with aims to improve connectivity between bus and rail services in Lincoln by the construction of a new bus station adjacent to the railway station, alongside improvements to the railway station itself, including a new pedestrianised plaza outside the main entrance on St Mary's Street. Construction of the Transport Hub commenced in August 2016 and is scheduled to be completed by December 2017.^[3]

Platform layout and services

Train services run between Lincoln and

• Newark North Gate and Leicester via Newark Castle and Nottingham using the Nottingham to Lincoln Line ("Midland line");
• Sheffield via Retford and direct to Doncaster via the Doncaster to Lincoln Line ("Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line").
• Peterborough via Sleaford via the Peterborough to Lincoln Line ("Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line")
• Grimsby Town via Market Rasen, with occasional journeys to Cleethorpes

There are also once daily services Monday to Saturday to London St Pancras operated by East Midlands Trains and to London King's Cross operated by Virgin Trains East Coast.

There are five platforms at the station, numbered 1–5:

• Platforms 1 and 2 are bay platforms used for daytime stabling of trains and for terminating arrivals from the east which will return east (trains arriving from the east which will form westbound services will be routed into one of the through platforms).
• Platforms 3, 4 and 5 are bidirectional through platforms used for services on all routes. All three through platforms are used as most operationally advantageous.
• Platform 3 is the platform face adjacent the main station building and is nearest to the station entrance. The ticket barriers, buffet/shop, a waiting room, accessible toilet and staff facilities are all sited on platform 3.
• Platforms 4 and 5 are the two faces of the island platform. Passenger waiting rooms and toilets are on the island platform, as is the staff conference room.

Lincoln station is also home to an East Midlands Trains train crew depot; trains are stabled overnight in any or all of the platforms as operationally convenient.

Types of trains

Lincoln often sees Class 150s, 153s, 156s, 158s, 142s and 144s. The class 158s and class 156s are operated by East Midlands Trains and the class 142s, class 144s and class 150 by Northern. The class 153 is used by both companies at the station. Lincoln sees two a day of Class 222, which is used by East Midlands Trains, and InterCity 125s are use by Virgin Trains East Coast, these are only on the London services in the morning and evening.

Resignalling

The old layout and signalling, seen in 1977

View of the station in August 2007 showing then recently relaid track

Network Rail instituted a major resignalling scheme for Lincoln Central during the years 2007–2008 which saw:

• the replacement of the semaphore signals with colour light signals,
• the concentration of all signalling control into one signal box rather than the previous four,
• track relaying, and ballasting
• new points and crossovers which allow all three through platforms at Lincoln to be used in both directions and allows trains from the east to enter the two bay platforms (1 & 2) directly.^[4]

As a direct result, terminating trains no longer need to shunt from one side of the station to the other to take up their return workings, reducing turnaround times for terminating trains and improve train service punctuality and reliability.

As part of the overall scheme, Lincoln Central's platforms have been renumbered from 3–7 to 1–5: (the current platform 1 was previously platform 3, 2 was 4 etc.)

Barriers at Lincoln Central station.

The ornate main entrance at Lincoln station.

All four existing signal boxes - High Street, East Holmes, West Holmes and Pelham Street Junction - were closed and replaced by a new state of the art signalling centre near the West Holmes box. Pelham Street and West Holmes boxes were demolished, but the High Street and East Holmes boxes are listed buildings and are preserved.

Future services

For many years, Lincoln had not been served with a direct rail service to London. However, the awarding of two new rail franchises saw this remedied.

On 14 August 2007, it was announced that National Express East Coast would take over the InterCity East Coast Franchise in December 2007. As part of the commitment, NXEC planned to introduce a two-hourly service between Lincoln Central and London King's Cross, starting in 2009. This service would have alternated with a two-hourly service to York.^[5][6] The InterCity East Coast Franchise was passed to East Coast in November 2009. In late 2009 East Coast along with NetworkRail published details of the ECML proposed new timetable, including the Lincoln-London services. In spring 2010 it was announced that this new service would be cut back. East Coast, citing financial restraints during the credit crunch, announced instead just one direct train in each direction per day, with extra services running only as far as Newark NorthGate station, meaning Lincoln passengers will still have to change trains there.^[7] On 22 May 2011 East Coast started direct Lincoln-London Kings Cross services, albeit in a much reduced number than they had originally planned. There is one train a day to London leaving Lincoln at 07:20 Monday-Friday and 09.30 on Saturday, there is no East Coast Service to London on a Sunday. The return service leaves London at 19:06 Monday-Friday, 18.08 on Saturday, and 19.08 on Sunday. As of March 2015 the King's Cross service is now operated by Virgin Trains East Coast.

In addition to the Virgin Trains East Coast services, East Midlands Trains operate one train per day Monday-Saturday from Lincoln to London St Pancras, and a return journey is made in the evening. Monday-Saturday, the East Midlands Trains service to London St Pancas leaves Lincoln at 07.04, and the return journey leaves London St Pancras at 18.30 Monday-Friday, and on a Saturday the service leaves at 17.29.

The new Northern franchise due to start in April 2016 will see service improvements on the Lincoln line - the service frequency to Sheffield & Retford will be increased to twice hourly (and to hourly on Sundays), whilst the Lincoln to Sheffield service will be incorporated into Arriva Rail North's Northern Connect regional network and extended to Leeds via Barnsley.^[8]

In 2006, Humber & City, an open-access operator owned by Renaissance Trains, proposed running services between Cleethorpes and Stratford via Lincoln. Nothing concrete seems to have come of the proposal.

Nottingham County Council, the Department for Transport and Network Rail are in discussion about various improvements to the line towards Nottingham including a doubling of service.^[9]

Accidents and incidents

• On 4 June 1962, an express passenger train was derailed due to excessive speed on a curve. Three people were killed and 49 were injured.^[10][11]

References

Further reading

• Hunt, John (19 November – 2 December 1997). "Lincoln: City of surprises!". RAIL. No. 318. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 24–31. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699. 

External links

Media related to Lincoln Central railway station at Wikimedia Commons

Lincoln Lines
to Doncaster Pyewipe Junction Boultham Junction West Holmes Junction to Nottingham Holmes Yard Lincoln St. Marks Brayford Wharf Crossing High Street Crossing Lincoln Central GN and GE Avoiding Line to Cleethorpes GN Terrace Crossing Sincil Junction to Grantham Washingboro' Junction to Peterborough to Spalding/Boston

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Collingham		East Midlands Trains Midland Main Line		Terminus
Hykeham		East Midlands Trains Nottingham-Lincoln Line
Saxilby		East Midlands Trains Doncaster-Lincoln Line
Terminus		East Midlands Trains Peterborough-Lincoln Line		Metheringham
Hykeham		East Midlands Trains Newark-Grimsby Line		Market Rasen
Saxilby		Northern Sheffield-Lincoln Line		Terminus
Newark North Gate		Virgin Trains East Coast East Coast Main Line		Terminus
Historical railways
Skellingthorpe Line and station closed		Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway		Branston and Heighington Line open, station closed
Waddington Line and station closed		Great Northern Railway Lincoln-Grantham Line		Terminus
Terminus		Great Northern Railway Lincolnshire Loop Line		Washingborough Line and station closed
Skellingthorpe Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Dukeries Route		Terminus