Grimsby Town railway station

History

The station was opened on 29 February 1848 when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway opened its line from New Holland to Grimsby, and thence by the East Lincolnshire Railway to Louth.

It was the terminus of the East Lincolnshire Line from Peterborough and Boston via Louth until the line's closure to passengers in October 1970. The remaining line runs east to west, terminating at Cleethorpes on the northeast Lincolnshire seafront, and runs west to Habrough where the line to Barton-upon-Humber branches northwards, and further to Barnetby, where at Wrawby Junction the line splits into three, going to Scunthorpe/Doncaster/Sheffield, Gainsborough/Retford/Sheffield and Market Rasen/Lincoln/Newark.

On 13 November 1907 a fireman was killed in an accident at the station when oiling his locomotive, five trucks were shunted on to the end of the train. The impact sent the train forward and the fireman was trapped in the machinery. He could not be extricated without the engine being reversed and backed to the original place, and this action resulted in him being mangled in the machinery and he was killed.

In a collision on 15 July 1930, 32 people were injured when a train from New Holland crashed into an express train from Sheffield which was stationary in Grimsby Station.

The station was refurbished by TransPennine Express in 2007/2008. Brand new departure screens have been fitted and are now in use, along with an automated announcement system (CIS). The ticket office has also been refurbished, the refurbishment includes new lighting, seating, flooring and a refurbished ticket desk. The waiting room on platform 2 and the station buffet have also been refurbished. Two new lifts at a cost of £2 million were installed in 2011 and were opened by Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell on Tuesday 19 July 2011.

Description

The station has three platforms in use, with an overall roof (renewed in 1978) covering platforms 1 & 2. Platform 1 is the main eastbound through platform, whilst platform 2 is the corresponding platform for westbound trains but is also signalled for eastbound services if required. Platform 3 is the outer face of the southern island platform and is located outside the train shed - this was formerly a through platform used by Doncaster & Lincoln trains but is now only accessible from the west and is normally used by EMT trains from the Lincoln direction that turn back here. The main facilities (ticket office, buffet & waiting room) are all located on platform 1.

The ticket office is manned daily from 06:00 (weekdays)/05:30 (Saturdays)/08:45 (Sundays) until 19:30. A self-service ticket machine is also available at the station entrance for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. Customer help points are available on platforms 1 and 2 and step-free access is available to all platforms.

The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving, it is in the same area as Grimsby Docks and Cleethorpes stations.

Services

The station is served on weekdays by TransPennine Express trains between Cleethorpes and Manchester Airport via Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly (hourly), the Northern-operated Cleethorpes to Barton-On-Humber local stopping service (every two hours) and by East Midlands Trains services to Lincoln and Newark (eight trains per day, roughly every two hours). Only the first westbound service each morning and last return pair each evening run to and from Cleethorpes on weekdays – the others all start/terminate here (no through trains to Cleethorpes run on Saturdays). Three Northern trains to and from Sheffield via Retford operate on Saturdays only.

Sundays see a two-hourly service to Manchester in the morning, increasing to hourly in the afternoon. A limited service to Barton (four each way) and Lincoln (three each way) operates during the summer months only.

Great North Eastern Railway had put forward proposals in 2014 to create a rail link between Cleethorpes and London Kings Cross, calling at Grimsby Town, Habrough, Scunthorpe and Doncaster, arriving at a new modern Kings Cross station. This service would have been introduced by December 2017 if Alliance Rail's plans had been accepted by the Office of Rail Regulation and would create the first direct link to London since 1986. In May 2016, it was announced by the ORR that GNER had been refused permission to operate these services.

In October 2017, services between Cleethorpes and Barton-on-Humber will be transferred to East Midlands Trains - the only remaining Northern operated service left at Grimsby thereafter will be the Saturdays-only one between Sheffield and Cleethorpes via Brigg (as noted above).