East Midlands Railways timetable on Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln line is ‘not fit for purpose’, claims majority of Bleasby community

Janene Scurfield, who initiated the survey, said 31% of households use the train service from Bleasby on a weekly basis while more than 80% of survey respondents said they were forced to drive to Lowdham or Fiskerton to catch more conveniently timed trains.

“We understand that scheduling services is a complex process, but adding a two-minute stop at Bleasby must be within the bounds of possibility for the train operator,” said Janene.

“For many in the village, with no car, and only a very limited bus service, the lack of frequent trains can lead to isolation, and for some, has led them to move away.

“EMR are ignoring the needs of hundreds of customers and are missing an opportunity that could go some way towards resolution of their parlous financial situation.

“Ignoring your customers’ real needs is a classic way of going out of business.

“EMR seems to exemplify this.”

Janene said fares were often not collected on the train from the village, causing an incorrect figure on the real level of demand.

“Importantly, 40% of those who do not use the service explain that the timetable simply does not work for them,” she said,

“A good example is the Saturday evening timetable, with the last train from Nottingham leaving at 9.31pm, hardly the recipe for a proper night out.”

Through the survey, the village identified existing services that pass through Bleasby without stopping, and recently submitted to EMR a schedule of up to five additional eastbound and westbound services that could be made available on weekdays and weekends.

And they highlighted the need for a new service to help travellers late on Saturday evening.

Janene said East Midland Trains had since failed to respond to Bleasby residents with any meaningful change to timetabling.

A number of additional services had previously been offered, but she said none of those met the real needs of Bleasby villagers.

Newark and Sherwood district councillor Roger Blaney, of Southwell, said: “I am as disappointed as anybody that we haven’t got back to the pre-pandemic level of service that we had on this line or many of the regional lines operated by East Midlands Railway.

“Having said that, I have been working with East Midlands Railway and I have ben able to get two additional services to be re-introduced to the timetable that came out last December at Bleasby.

“And I have been told there will be an additional three stops at Bleasby in the May timetable which will restore the number of services at Bleasby back to the number the Department for Transport determined was necessary, which is encouraging and positive news.”

Mr Blaney said: “I do recognise that it is the one community within my ward that doesn’t have an all-day bus service or any other form of public transport.”

An EMR spokesperson said: “We have received the survey from Janene and thanked her for taking the time to gather local residents views and share them with us.

“The current timetable has been developed to meet our contractual obligations while also being mindful of the requirements of everyone else who uses the railway, including Network Rail and other passenger and freight train operators.

“We have looked carefully at the proposals made but, unfortunately, they would require a much larger change to our timetables and are not possible in the short to medium term. However, our May timetable change will see some additional services added to Bleasby, returning their level of service to pre-pandemic levels.

“If we are in a position to consider more wholesale changes to our timetables in the future then a public consultation will take place and local customers, businesses, local authorities and the wider community will have the opportunity to feed in their views.”