Newark Business Club shares concerns about train service through the Lincoln, Newark and Nottingham corridor

An initiative from Midlands Connect, seeking the views of businesses on the need for improved train service between Lincoln, Newark, and Nottingham, has been welcomed.

It says the service is arguably the worst in the UK that connects regional cities, due to low frequency ­— with just one train an hour between Lincoln and Nottingham, poor connectivity ­— with no through trains from Lincoln to Derby or from Lincoln or Newark to Birmingham, and journey times that are not competitive with the equivalent car.

Newark Business Club welcomed Midlands Connect’s intervention as it believes there is an urgent need to radically overhaul the timetable on the route and this will drive economic growth by improving the service through Newark Castle, and connectivity to other cities, and create a shift of journeys from road to rail with a target for rail to have a market share of 20 to 25% by 2027.

It says the availability of trains being displaced from the Midland Main Line in 2023 makes it feasible to deliver faster, more frequent trains between the cities so bringing major benefits to Newark and with regional services in the East Midlands adequately resourced for the first time in more than a decade.

It encourages people to follow the lead of other areas, including Anglia, where concerted political pressure led to the replacement of their entire rolling stock fleet in 2019, and in the southwest, where strong political support has delivered 11 major improvements to train services in the region since 2015.

Newark Business Club has been in discussion with Newark MP Robert Jenrick over the issues and he has written to the railways minister seeking a meeting.

It has also identified options to radically improve the east to west train service through Newark Castle, including the restoration of through trains to Birmingham.

Midlands Connect identified in 2019 that rail’s market share was low at 7.4% to Nottingham, 7.2% to Derby and just 5% to Leicester, which it says is a direct result of the sub-standard service.

Representations to government from stakeholders have been totally ignored, it claims, and the May 2021 timetable changes made things even worse with a significant reduction of the peak-hour service in to and out of Nottingham that will drive people away from the railway.

Worse was to follow, it said, when in June 2021 an emergency timetable was introduced that does not provide a basic hourly service between Lincoln and Nottingham.

Cancellations continue that can and does lead to a three-hour gap in the train service between the two cities.

It condemned the government’s lack of commitment to regional train services in the East Midlands, which its says was confirmed with an instruction to East Midlands Railway to transfer four two-coach trains to Northern.

As a result, there is now no timescale for the re-instatement of the May 2021 timetable.