Cleethorpes railway station

Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes railway station in 2012
Location	Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire England
Coordinates	53°33′45″N 0°01′44″W / 53.5626°N 0.029°W / 53.5626; -0.029Coordinates: 53°33′45″N 0°01′44″W / 53.5626°N 0.029°W / 53.5626; -0.029
Grid reference	TA306090
Managed by	TransPennine Express
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	CLE
Classification	DfT category D
History
Original company	Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
6 April 1863	opened
Passengers
2016/17	0.288 million
2017/18	0.285 million
2018/19	0.296 million
2019/20	0.274 million
2020/21	68,322
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Former Cleethorpes Railway Station Buildings (1884)
Designated	17 September 1980
Reference no.	1161596[1]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

v t Passenger lines of North East Lincolnshire
Legend
Hull Corporation Pier Barton- on-Humber Humber Ferry Barrow Haven New Holland Pier New Holland engine shed New Holland Town New Holland Goxhill East Halton Killingholme Admiralty Platform Thornton Abbey Killingholme Thornton Curtis Immingham West Jn Humber Road Jn Immingham Western Jetty Ulceby Aerodrome Platform Ulceby North Jn Immingham Dock Ulceby Dock Entrance Immingham engine shed Immingham Eastern Jetty Immingham Queens Road Immingham Dock Immingham Town Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock Sheffield– Lincoln line & South Humberside Main Line Immingham Halt Habrough Kiln Lane Stallingborough Marsh Road LC Healing No.5 Passing Place Great Coates Great Coates LC Pyewipe Depot Halt Pyewipe car sheds Cleveland Bridge Grimsby Pyewipe Road West Marsh Jn East Marsh Jn Cleveland Street Stortford Street Grimsby Town Boulevard Recreation Ground East Lincolnshire Rlwy to Boston Jackson Street Grimsby engine shed Yarborough Street Grimsby Docks Corporation Bridge Grimsby Pier Riby Street Platform New Clee Cleethorpes Kingsway (CCLR) Discovery Lakeside Central North Sea Lane Humberston North Sea Lane Beach South Sea Lane Lincolnshire Coast Lt Rly 1960–1985

Cleethorpes railway station is a terminal railway station serving the seaside town of Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire, England. The station is managed by TransPennine Express, with East Midlands Railway and Northern services also using the station.

History[]

The station opened on Easter Monday, 6 April 1863^[2] when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway extended the line from Grimsby into the town.

The station buildings were constructed in 1884^[1] with refreshment rooms and a clocktower by John Mann Lockerbie and Arthur Wilkinson of Birmingham. Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale used the station on 2 July 1885 when he visited Cleethorpes to open the promenade and gardens facing the sea constructed by H.B James CE of Westminster for the railway company.^[3]

The station layout was remodelled in 1889 to give six platforms and two carriage sidings extending in the direction of Grimsby. By 1891 the carriage sidings had been increased to six and extended to a new signal box at Suggitt's Lane. This layout also included a turntable to the rear of the signal box. A 1910 report into work carried out the previous year refers to new crossovers to enable trains to arrive and depart from any platform. The signal box by this time had 100 levers and was jointly the third largest on the Great Central system with Marylebone. The original GCR station buildings on platform one were replaced by the current single storey structure on 14 July 1961,^[4][5] but they still stand and are now used as train crew accommodation.

Until 1985 the station and surrounding area was still controlled by a mechanical signal box with full semaphore signalling, including double track throughout to Grimsby and beyond. However, a resignalling scheme for the entire area saw the line to Grimsby singled & the number of platforms reduced to four (numbers 1–3 and 5). Platform 5 was renumbered 4 and the Diesel Fuelling Road is what used to be platform 6. The signal box was closed & demolished and new colour light signals installed which were operated from a panel in the signal box at Pasture Street in Grimsby. In later works the platform surfaces have been rebuilt to modern specifications. Since January 2016, all signalling here is supervised from the Rail Operating Centre at York.

In the 1970s Cleethorpes had a twice daily return service to London King's Cross, typically hauled by a Class 55 Deltic.

Even after resignalling until the withdrawal of locomotive hauled cross-Pennine services and the through London King's Cross service, evening time at Cleethorpes was a very busy time with most arrivals requiring cleaning through the carriage washer, fuelling on the small fuel point and shunting into the various departure positions for the following morning. Locomotives returned to the diesel depot at Immingham for overnight servicing, and the High Speed Train from King's Cross was fuelled at the fuelling point at the rear of what used to be called Hawkeys Cafe via a siding that went round the back of the Wash Plant control building and joined up with the old Platform 6 road.

The station building on platform 1 was deemed unsafe and closed in 2001,^[6] leaving only platforms 2 and 3 in use. Platform 1 had reopened by 2007, and all platforms were fitted with new information displays. Other platforms at the station remain unused, and are in a state of neglect as sand has blown from the nearby beach onto the lines and formed drifts. Platform 1 is normally used by TransPennine Express services to Manchester Airport, platform 2 for EMR services to Barton-on-Humber, whilst platform 3 is usually used only for early morning and late evening TransPennine Express services, and the Northern Saturday-only service to Sheffield via Brigg and Retford.

First TransPennine Express built a small depot, to provide stabling, light maintenance and re-fuelling at Cleethorpes for its DMU fleet. The Class 153 units used by both East Midlands Railway and Northern do not berth here overnight but work in and out either in service or empty from Lincoln.

Facilities[]

The station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open 06:45-19:30 Mondays to Saturdays and 09:00-19:30 on Sundays. A self-service ticket machine is provided on the concourse for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are toilets, a waiting room and refreshment facilities (a public house) also located on the concourse. Customer help points, timetable posters and CIS displays are located on both the concourse and each platform. All platforms have step-free access.^[7]

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, New Clee and Grimsby stations.

Services[]

Services at Cleethorpes are operated by TransPennine Express, East Midlands Railway and Northern Trains.

Typical off-peak services are as follows:^[8][9]

• TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express operate an hourly service to Manchester Airport via Doncaster and Sheffield along their South TransPennine route via the South Humberside Main Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Styal Line. On Sundays, the service is two-hourly in the morning but improves to hourly in the afternoon.

• East Midlands Railway

East Midlands Railway operate a two-hourly stopping service to Barton-on-Humber via the Barton Line as well as a limited service to Leicester via Nottingham and Lincoln. On Sundays, there are three trains per day to Nottingham and four to Barton-on-Humber during the summer months with this service expected to run in the winter for the first time.

• Northern Trains

Northern Trains operate a limited service of three trains per day to Sheffield via Brigg which operate on Saturdays only.

Proposed Changes[]

In January 2021, the Department for Transport opened a consultation on proposals to improve services around Manchester and improve reliability with the options proposed by the Manchester Recovery Taskforce. Options B and C proposed the Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes service be diverted to Liverpool Lime Street via Manchester Piccadilly instead of running to the airport, providing a direct link to Liverpool and Warrington. If either of these options are chosen, the changes would come into force in May 2022.^[10] In October 2021, a preferred option, Option B+ was announced and it involved the new Liverpool to Cleethorpes service replacing the Manchester Airport service, if proposals are agreed they would come in to force from December 2022. ^[11]

In April 2021, London North Eastern Railway revealed that a London King's Cross to Cleethorpes service would be introduced as part of the timetable overhaul from May 2022.^[12]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
New Clee		East Midlands Railway Barton Line		Terminus
Grimsby Town		East Midlands Railway Leicester to Grimsby Limited Service
		Northern Trains Brigg Branch Line Saturday only
		TransPennine Express South Humberside Main Line South TransPennine

References[]

Notes[]

Bibliography[]

• "Signal Box Diagrams No.14 – Cleethorpes" by Roger Milnes and John Bennett, Forward, the journal of the Great Central Railway Society, No. 83, August 1991. ISSN 0141-4488
• Body, G. (1986), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region, Volume 1, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 0-85059-712-9

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleethorpes railway station.

• Train times and station information for Cleethorpes railway station from National Rail
• Photos of Cleethorpes Station & Approaches in the 1980s