Boston railway station geograph-2298559-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Boston railway station serves the town of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is on the

Poacher Line The Grantham–Skegness line, originally promoted as the "Poacher Line", runs for between Grantham and Skegness in Lincolnshire, England. Trains on this route originate from Nottingham via the Nottingham to Grantham Line as an hourly through se ...

. The station is now owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by

East Midlands Railway Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. History In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...

who provide all rail services.

History

The station opened for service on 17 October 1848 with the opening of the Great Northern Railway East Lincolnshire line. The station has declined in importance since the 1960s. In its heyday the station employed over 50 staff and had two through tracks and cover over the platform tracks. The

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

bound platform had classic Great Northern Railway architecture buildings as well, now replaced with plastic shelters. The station frontage remains, albeit altered, in partially reconstructed manner, and some of the buildings have found new uses. Boston station was once an important junction, with two lines diverging in either direction. Today, only the eastbound line to Skegness, and the westbound line towards Sleaford remain in use. There was previously a southbound line to Spalding (closed in October 1970) that joined the line to Peterborough (and formed part of the original GNR main line from London to

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

), and a north-westbound line to Woodhall Junction (closed in June 1963) and thence on towards Lincoln, Horncastle, or Louth. Both surviving routes are single line, with a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

at the station. To the south of the station the access to Boston Docks via the

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

and the site of the Broadfield Lane depot remain (the rail link into the docks still sees occasional use). To the north along the old

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

and

Horncastle Horncastle is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains. History Romans Alt ...

route, about 2 miles north of the town is the old

Hall Hills In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the grea ...

sleeper depot.

Station Masters

*Mr. Carruthers ca. 1849 *George Waghorn 1851 - 1855 *George R.H. Mullins 1855 - 1871 (formerly station master at Doncaster) *John James Reading 1884 - 1899 (afterwards station master at Lincoln) *David J. Halliday 1899 - 1920 *J.W. Malkinson 1920 - 1928 *T. Day 1928 - 1933 *Clifford G. Turner 1933 - 1937 (afterwards station master at Ardsley) *T.W. Croot 1937 - 1938 (afterwards station master at Spalding) *William P. Spinks 1939 -1949 *H.B. Onyon 1949 - 1951 (afterwards station master at Peterborough East) *Charles Morris 1951 - 1955

Services

All services at Boston are operated by

. On weekdays and Saturdays, The station is served by an hourly service westbound to via and eastbound to . On Sundays, the service is served by a limited service in each direction, with additional services during the summer months. Enhancements to the Sunday service are due to be made during the life of the East Midlands franchise.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations in Lincolnshire DfT Category E stations Former Great Northern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Buildings and structures in Boston, Lincolnshire