Gainsborough Central railway station is one of two railway stations in the town of

Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Gainsborough is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The town population was 20,842 at the 2011 census, and estimated at 23,243 in 2019. It lies on the east bank of the River Trent ...

, England. The station is on the Brigg branch of the Sheffield–Lincoln line. Services are currently operated by Northern Trains. The town's other station is the busier Gainsborough Lea Road.

History

The station was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) on 2 April 1849. The opening day was a gala occasion, shops were closed and the town was full of visitors. The station, off Spring Gardens, was crowded with onlookers, and at noon the train whistle was heard in the distance. Some hundreds of people saw 'a veritable locomotive on a line of railway at Gainsborough' for the first time. It came over the track by a wooden trestle bridge across the Humble Carr and backed into the station. The directors of the line and the chief engineer were greeted by leading inhabitants and then went in procession to the old

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

, the White Hart, for a champagne lunch. The station buildings were designed by architects

Weightman and Hadfield Matthew Ellison Hadfield (8 September 1812 – 9 March 1885) was an English architect of the Victorian Gothic revival. He is chiefly known for his work on Roman Catholic churches, including the cathedral churches of Salford and Sheffield. Trai ...

. A substantial stone frontage with full-height portico with four attached Roman Ionic columns and triple arcade with moulded round arches. The MS&LR became the Great Central Railway (GCR) on 1 August 1897, which in turn amalgamated with other railways to form the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER) at the end of 1922. The LNER inherited two stations in Gainsborough, and to distinguish them, the ex-GCR station was renamed ''Gainsborough Central'' in September 1923. The station buildings were demolished in 1975, leaving just the two platforms and a footbridge over the two railway lines. Weekday passenger services (which had been thrice-daily each way between Sheffield and since the early 1980s) were withdrawn by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in October 1993 leaving only three trains in each direction running on Saturdays. In the

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for Rail transport in the United Kingdom, the railway industry. Its motto was 'Brita ...

's 2002/3 financial year, only five fare-paying passengers (excluding season ticket holders) boarded trains at Gainsborough Central station, and three disembarked, making it the least busy station in Great Britain, alongside Barry Links. The 2004/05 figures suggested 21 passengers used the station that year, putting it slightly above Watford West, a station which closed in 1996. The line through the station was upgraded and refurbished in 2008 by contractors Arup and Carillon to allow it to carry increased levels of

freight traffic Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

from the port complex at

Immingham Immingham is a town, civil parish and ward in the North East Lincolnshire unitary authority of England. It is situated on the south-west bank of the Humber Estuary, and is north-west from Grimsby. The region was relatively unpopulated and un ...

to South Yorkshire and the East Midlands. This was done to reduce congestion on the busy route via Scunthorpe. Meanwhile, the Friends of the Brigg and Lincoln Line, who come under the umbrella of the Lincolnshire Branch of Railfuture, was campaigning for the introduction of regular weekday services. This was finally achieved in May 2019 when Northern introduced an hourly service between Gainsborough Central and Sheffield on weekdays and Saturdays, the most regular service the station has received since 1849. Although it falls outside Northern's franchise commitments, the operator agreed to run the service without extra subsidy, with

West Lindsey District Council West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

agreeing to fund improvements to the station and signage. The new services utilise trains and crew which would otherwise have waited 40 minutes at Retford. Stopping at all stations, it now allows the Lincoln to Sheffield service to run non-stop between Worksop and Sheffield as part of the new '' Northern Connect'' network. Just eight months later however, the regular service was suspended again due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confir ...

, with a skeleton service resuming in May 2022.

Location

Gainsborough Central station is situated close to Gainsborough steel stock holders (since moved) and the new Marshalls Yard Shopping Centre.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and has relatively basic facilities. The station has a self-service ticket machine for ticket purchases. The station has a small cycle rack at the entrance and car parking is available at the nearby Marshalls Yard Shopping Centre. Step-free access is available to both platforms at the station.

Services

All services at Gainsborough Central are operated by Northern Trains. As of December 2022, the station is served by four trains per day on weekdays and Saturdays to via which start and terminate at Gainsborough Central. On Saturdays, the station is served by three additional trains per day between Sheffield and via . There is no Sunday service. The nearby is served regularly throughout the day, in the evenings and on Sundays.

Gallery

References

External links

1849 view of the station1954 view of the station
{{Lincolnshire railway stations Railway stations in Lincolnshire DfT Category F1 stations Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Northern franchise railway stations Buildings and structures demolished in 1974 1849 establishments in England Gainsborough, Lincolnshire