EMT Nottingham - Grantham (- Skegness)

[70014IronDuke]

EMT has improved the Sunday service significantly from May this year, and not just for the summer. The winter service, at least Nottingham-Grantham bit, will still be enhanced from September.

Is that EMT's own initiative or due to local council efforts/extra subsidy - anyone know?

While welcome, nonetheless I find it a bit puzzling why these only stop at Bingham. The Sunday service to other stations on the route is limited to two trains each way in summer, and only one from Grantham in winter (and that at 12.50).

In fact, Bingham is especially blessed during the week relative to Bottesford. Despite the fact that the official passenger usage shows the latter to have 61,000+ passengers in the last yearly count, versus 59,000 for Bingham. Bottesford gets a roughly two-hourly service - Bingham gets hourly.

It implies that Bottesford, at least, should get a better service pattern during the week (unless they all get on the morning trains to Grantham, and return in the evening, with no demand in between.)

Also, is there any obvious reason why none of the new Sunday services deign to stop at Bottesfordd, or come to that, Aslockton or Radcliffe?

 

[43074]

In fact, Bingham is especially blessed during the week relative to Bottesford. Despite the fact that the official passenger usage shows the latter to have 61,000+ passengers in the last yearly count, versus 59,000 for Bingham. Bottesford gets a roughly two-hourly service - Bingham gets hourly.

It implies that Bottesford, at least, should get a better service pattern during the week (unless they all get on the morning trains to Grantham, and return in the evening, with no demand in between.)

The DfT are to blame for the Bingham/Bottesford anomaly, they specified the timetables - it came about with the December 2008 timetable, and a similar situation arose with Lowdham and Collingham on the Nottingham to Lincoln route, where Lowdham was specified with an hourly service and Collingham didn't see much improvement, despite Collingham having stronger passenger growth for Nottingham traffic and Lowdham having buses every 20 mins to Nottingham during the day. It's what happens when civil servants interfere with running a railway, although there are much better examples of that out there.

 

[edwin_m]

Bingham also has a much better bus service than Bottesford, and the train from Bottesford into Nottingham would be more competitive with the bus because of the greater distance.

 

[Welshman]

I suspect Bingham [pop. acc. to Wiki 9,131] with further housing planned, is seen as having greater potential than Bottesford [pop. acc. to Wiki 3,587]

 

[70014IronDuke]

Bingham also has a much better bus service than Bottesford, and the train from Bottesford into Nottingham would be more competitive with the bus because of the greater distance.

Well, I suspect Bottesford is perhaps more linked to Grantham than Nottingham? But yes, stopping more trains, especially on a Sunday (now more are running) would seem to be a reasonable policy, given it is the most busy intermediate stop on the line.

 

[70014IronDuke]

I suspect Bingham [pop. acc. to Wiki 9,131] with further housing planned, is seen as having greater potential than Bottesford [pop. acc. to Wiki 3,587]

Well, in terms of potential, that may be so. But in terms of the reality here and now, Bottesford has slightly more passengers (like 4% more) than Bingham - yet the former has a signficantly inferior service pattern.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Bingham, just

a) on weekdays I'd have thought Bottesford deserves more trains - just based on the current ridership.

b) on Sundays, with the improved service, I'm surprised EMT has not introduced a few more intermediate stops on at least some trains - otherwise, I'm surprised the service can be justified. Are there significant flows purely between Nottingham and Grantham? I'd have thought the majority of passengers on the line in winter would have been to/from the intermediate stations.

 

[TheBigD]

Deleted

 

[70014IronDuke]

EMT have improved some of their Sunday services and whilst this is to be welcomed there are still much more to be done... There's still the 3 hour gap in Norwich-Liverpool Sunday departures (1057 then 1353) for example...

Is there demand for extra trains from Norwich at that time? (I don't know.)

The late start up for the Nottingham-Norwich and vv service... The lack of Joint line or Ivanhoe line Sunday services..

There's also a number of weekday services that require improvement like the Newark-Lincoln-Grimsby service and the Doncaster-Lincoln-Perterborough Joint Line service which seems just 5 trains a day to Doncaster at non commuting times and the legacy of 0830-1630 limited service between Sleaford and Spalding... Yes EMT need more stock but there are areas that could be improved without extra stock...

Could they? Is there demand for Ivanhoe Sunday services, for example? (Again, I do not really know.) The Joint line services and Linoln-Cleethorpes are pretty desperate, I agree.

Anyway, my original point was that they ARE running extra trains on the Sunday Notts - Grantham in winter - yet the additional services ignore (by local standards) mportant stations on the line. It would add +2mins to the schedule just to pop one of these in per trip.

 

[TheBigD]

Deleted

 

[ashworth]

Well, I suspect Bottesford is perhaps more linked to Grantham than Nottingham? But yes, stopping more trains, especially on a Sunday (now more are running) would seem to be a reasonable policy, given it is the most busy intermediate stop on the line.

I don't know anything about who determines the stopping pattern of trains between Nottingham and Grantham. Is it solely down to EMT or has Nottinghamshire a County Council had some influence in the amount of trains that call at Bingham? If Nottinghamshire County Council has been putting pressure upon EMT to stop more trains at Bingham perhaps that could be a reason why Bottesford has such a poor service. Bottesford is in Leicestershire, in a small narrow part of Northern Leicestershire that sticks up between Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. I think it's so remote from the rest of Leicestershire that it's often forgotten about. With most of the line being in Nottinghamshire and the Grantham end in Lincolnshire it's easy to forget that for a couple miles at the most through Bottesford the line runs through Leicestershire.