When did Lincoln lose its direct service to Birmingham?

[Jorge Da Silva]

Out of interest when did Lincoln to Birmingham services stop and become Nottingham-Birmingham and Nottingham to Lincoln (the latter now being Leicester to Lincoln).

 

[dk1]

Out of interest when did Lincoln to Birmingham services stop and become Nottingham-Birmingham and Nottingham to Lincoln (the latter now being Leicester to Lincoln).

Wasn't it during 2007 at the demise of Central Trains? The split between XC & EMT left several routes split up.

 

[Failed Unit]

Slightly before then to get us used to the idea. Big objections at the time which were of course ignore. The CT breakup was not announced at this point.

In hindsight the worse thing to happen to Lincoln’s rail service was in the early 90s when BR diverted the service from Birmingham- Coventry. Coventry was always a worse destination. It was moved back to Birmingham (via Nuneaton) but the damage was done.

If only it had survived on the route via Birmingham, the city would be much better served than today.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

Was it really only 15 years ago? I was thinking it was late 90’s?

 

[dk1]

Just looked at the 2005 GBTT & still quite prolific.

 

[Failed Unit]

Was it really only 15 years ago? I was thinking it was late 90’s?

It lost them twice as per my post. Once in the 90s then when the WCML work severed the link to Coventry at Nuneaton they returned.

You may recall Grimsby - Chester services around the turn of the millennium.

 

[DavidGrain]

Last time I went on a train from Birmingham to Lincoln was 1985 and I am sure I had to change somewhere but I don't remember. It was the first week that one of the Lincoln stations had closed and there was a hand signal man hiding in the bushes with a big yellow flag and detonators on the track just before the new bend in the line taking you to the other station.

The return journey to Nottingham on a Sunday afternoon was slow because every signal was at danger so the driver had to get down to use the phone and shout back to the guard that he was passing the signal at danger

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

It lost them twice as per my post. Once in the 90s then when the WCML work severed the link to Coventry at Nuneaton they returned.

You may recall Grimsby - Chester services around the turn of the millennium.

I heard there were two daily Cleethorpes-Birmingham until 1992 (I was not born until 9 years later) this was replaced by 1 Cleethorpes-Cardiff and 1 Cleethorpes-Chester.

 

[Failed Unit]

I heard there were two daily Cleethorpes-Birmingham until 1992 (I was not born until 9 years later) this was replaced by 1 Cleethorpes-Cardiff and 1 Cleethorpes-Chester.

Cleethorpes only had one. Most others started from Grimsby. Heading west it was typically Chester. Heading East they originated from Aberystwyth mainly.

It was basically an hourly service from Lincoln - Nottingham- Liecester - Birmingham- Shrewsbury.

They alternated from Shrewsbury between Chester and Aberystwyth. The services from Grimsby also stopped at Newark Northgate. The ones that didn’t stopped at every blade of glass to Nottingham from Lincoln.

The cleethorpes - Cardiff was to replace the “Humber-lincs” London service with a high quality train. Now it is a 153

 

[Northern Tank]

Out of interest when did Lincoln to Birmingham services stop and become Nottingham-Birmingham and Nottingham to Lincoln (the latter now being Leicester to Lincoln).

After privatisation

 

[dk1]

After privatisation

Way way after privatisation.