National Express East Coast has officially announced its plans for a Cleethorpes-London Kings Cross service which would be provided by extending one of it's new Lincoln services. In the absence of an official press release on the NXEC website full details are provided on The Railway Centre website

http://www.therailwaycentre.com/News%20June%202008/250608_NXEC.html

The plans have not yet been approved.

The extended services would call at Cleethorpes, Grimsby Town and Market Rasen - but not Barnetby (or Habrough). How attractive would this service be to people in the likes of Barton, Brigg and Scunthorpe? If you have to drive into Grimsby, or down to Market Rasen you may as well drive to Doncaster and have a choice of times and indeed operators. For the few extra minutes a stop at Barnetby would take another market could be opened up to London.

If you live in Barton, Brough is also rather useful except for the small issue of a bridge toll ...

Bringing this back to my earlier post on the competing proposals to link the South Humber area to London this plan has the advantage of not taking up any capacity on the East Coast Main Line since Lincoln services are happenning anyway. But if fails to serve North Lincolnshire and other proposals offer more frequency. The Office of Rail Regulation must decide if the South Humber area has the demand to support more services, and precious East Coast Main Line paths, compared to various parts of Yorkshire and the North East.