Mystery Shopper
In the second of our assessments of how the railway performs in its day-to-day operations, RAIL’s Mystery Shopper heads to rural Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire - where, to be fair, some lines would have been ripped up long ago, had the accountants had their way.
But these are social railways. They provide a service to society. Their benefit cannot simply be measured by farebox revenue. The ability to support people in their work and leisure activities, and the effect this has on supporting other businesses, is vital.
Using a Lincolnshire Day Rover, RAIL planned to visit two destinations - the seaside towns of Skegness and Cleethorpes. Travelling out of season in January might not be everyone’s idea of fun, but it was a chance to visit at a time when the railway might not be in as much demand as in the summer, but nevertheless still provides vital transport links. Our first train starts at Peterborough, with East Midlands Railway’s 0734 to Doncaster.
You can travel between these two places in about 45 minutes on the fastest LNER train, but that’s via the East Coast Main Line with line speeds in excess of 100mph.
Instead of a 125mph Azuma, this train was a two-car Class 170 Turbostar diesel unit (170506), a design that dates from 1998. The service is booked to call at the regional towns of Spalding, Sleaford, Ruskington, Metheringham, Lincoln, Saxilby, Gainsborough (Lea Road) and Doncaster - a 93½-mile journey timetabled to take two hours and five minutes.
The ‘Joint line’ has been modernised in recent times, which has made it a 24-hour railway and a busy freight route - much to the chagrin of Spalding residents, who now have the gates going down two or three times an hour to let long container trains pass.
This modernisation has done away with much of the charm and character of this route, with the manually operated gated crossings, semaphore signals and signal boxes consigned to history.
But passenger numbers seem to be up. Gone are the single-car Class 153s, to be replaced first by two-car Class 156s, and then Class 170s. These two- and three-car Turbostars are a definite improvement, although some interiors are now looking a little tired.
There are plenty of seats available aboard 170506 on this Saturday morning, and the unit is in reasonable shape. The seats are a vivid green. You can’t please everyone all the time, but surely darker materials such as blacks and greys must be better at hiding the dirt.
We take this train only for the first 35 miles, leaving at Sleaford. It’s
