False hope? Talk of direct rail link from Cleethorpes to London seems to have run out of puff

 

Derailed? Hopes of direct trains from Cleethorpes to London have faded

LINGERING hopes  that a direct rail link might be restored between Cleethorpes and London this winter have chug, chug, chugged into the buffers.

Earlier this year, local Conservative MPs Lia Nici and Melanie Onn were confident that they had persuaded ministers to bring back the direct link  to the capital after a 32-year absence.

All being well, the first trains could have been running this December.

But since then there has been a change of Government, and the new rail controllers-in-chief have, according to the specialist media, shunted the prospect into the sidings.

Reportedly there are “timetabling, financial, operational and infrastructure” challenges - and there is no evident  political will  from rail minister Lilian Greenwood, nor anyone else, for them to  be overcome.

The reports will be a bitter disappointment not just for Mr Vickers but also for Grimsby’s MP, Melanie Onn - as well as for all those travellers who would have made use of the service.

Instead, it will be  the same service as ever. A slow train  to Doncaster, followed by a change of platform and a scramble to find a seat on the connection to Kings Cross.

* In another development, NELC planners this week gave the green light for a modular building to be installed at Cleethorpes railway station. This will accommodate a state-of the-art WC for disabled users.