Tuesday 22 March 2011

Barton-Cleethorpes Rail Service Retimings

From my latest Friends of the Barton Line minutes, from Sunday 22nd May times on Northern Rail's Barton to Cleethorpes service will see minor changes. It's related to the new East Coast Main Line timetable, which in turns affects the Cleethorpes-Manchester Airport service. Changes to that then impact the Barton Line. Below are the new times, and the old times for comparison.

Current Monday to Saturday
Barton D. 0658 0800 0958 1158 1358 1558 1800 1958 2158
Cleethorpes D. 0600 0700 0900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100
New Monday to Saturday
Barton D. 0658 0758 (0800 Sat) 0952 1152 1352 1552 (1554 Sat) 1755 1958 2158
Cleethorpes D. 0600 0700 0855 (0900 Sat) 1055 1255 1455 (1500 Sat) 1655 (1700 Sat) 1900 2103

Current Summer Sunday
Barton D. 1100 1400 1615 1915
Cleethorpes D. 0955 1255 1501 1755
New Summer Sunday
Barton D. 1100 1400 1615 1915
Cleethorpes D. 1005 1258 1458 1758

While there is still time to make connections onto the 350 Humber Fastcat to Hull at Barton in most cases, there are two connections which are going to be very tight. The current 2100 from Cleethorpes Monday to Saturday arrives in Barton at 2148, leaving 5 minutes before the 2153 bus. With the 2100 moving to 2103 this would leave 2 minutes to make the connection, assuming the journye time remains 48 minutes. On Sundays the 0955 from Cleethorpes currently arrives in Barton at 1044 to connect with the 1055 bus, but the train retiming would give an arrival in Barton at 1054.

Also noteworthy is the 1700 from Cleethorpes starting 5 minutes earlier on weekdays. What impact, if any, will this have on commuter traffic? Assuming the journey time between Cleethorpes and Grimsby Town remains 5 minutes, this would give a 1704 departure from Grimsby Town - very tight for anyone finishing at 5pm.

1 comment:

David Barrett said...

A similar situation will exist with some TPEX services. The current regular pattern of Up (Eastbound) services has been lost with earlier departures for some of the day. The present sequence of Monday to Thursday Scunthorpe departures at 07.50, 09.08 and hourly until: 18.08, 19.23, 20.08, 21.08, 22.41, 23.18 now becomes 07.50, 09.07, 10.03, and every hour until 17.03, 18.13, 19.23, 20.14, 21.12, 22.31, 23.23. The same comment about work leaving times applies here. There is also an inconsistancy as the 17.03 service is shown as departing Barnetby 17.20 whereas all other xx.03 departures are shown as xx.17 at the latter station.