Gainsborough Lea Road railway station is one of two stations that serve the town of
Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to:
Places
* Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England
** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich
* Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England
** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency)
* Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...
in
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 ...
, the other station being
Gainsborough Central, which is located in the town centre. The station is 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 ...
and is located northwest of
Lincoln Central
Lincoln railway station (previously Lincoln Central) serves the city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. East Midlands Railway provides the majority of services from th ...
on the
A156 Lea Road in the south of the town. The station opened in 1867 on a single line of the
Great Northern Railway, who ran four trains a day from Gainsborough to Lincoln.
History
Opening
The first station at Gainsborough was the current Central station opened on 2 April 1849 by the Manchester Sheffield and Lincoln railway. Initially a terminus this became a through station when the line was extended to Woodhouse and Retford on 16 July 1849. On 9 April 1849 a single-track line built by the
Great Northern Railway (GNR) from Lincoln to west of the station and GNR trains serving Gainsborough reversed here. Following the opening of the MSLR line to Retford, GNR services then ran to Retford although the reversal into Gainsborough Central was still required.
The GNR was keen to extend their line from Gainsborough to Doncaster and parliamentary approval for this line was received on 25 July 1864. As part of this scheme the existing Lincoln to Gainsborough line was also to be upgraded. On 1 December that year the line from Lincoln to Doncaster was closed and doubling took place. At this time the new station initially called Gainsborough was built and trains started calling there on 15 July 1867.
On 1 March 1871 a line was opened from north of the station to the bank of the River Trent serving Ashcroft Saw Mill and an iron works.
Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway
![Gainsborough Lea Road railway station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Gainsborough_Lea_Road_railway_station.jpg)
In 1879 the GNR and the Great Eastern Railway (GER) formed a committee to build a line linking the coal fields of south Yorkshire to London. This saw the building of a new line from Spalding North Junction to Pyewipe Junction near Lincoln which opened in stages in 1882. The station was transferred to the
Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway
The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway, colloquially referred to as "the Joint Line"''Joint Line Joy'', in the Railway Magazine, June 2015 was a railway line connecting Doncaster and Lincoln with March and Huntingdon in the eastern cou ...
committee.
Passenger facilities were improved in 1883 and 1884, and goods facilities expanded in 1886 and 1891 with a number of rail connected businesses operated in the station area. In 1909 the joint committee was abandoned and although the station remained in Joint ownership, it was managed by the GNR.
London and North Eastern Railway
The GNR amalgamated with several 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 ...
on 1 January 1923. On 9 July the station was renamed Gainsborough North although this name was short-lived as the station was renamed Gainsborough Lea Road on 1 December.
In the Second World War the joint line saw significant freight traffic and passenger services were reduced as a result.
British Railways
Following nationalisation of the railways in 1948 Gainsborough Lea Road became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.
The goods yard remained active during the 1950s but falling traffic saw closure on 1 April 1967.
Services
Winter 1890 services
Passenger services in the Winter 1890 services included several express services operated by the Great Eastern Railway supplemented by local trains between Lincoln and Doncaster operated by the GNR. there was also a Peterborough–Doncaster local service (GNR) and march – Doncaster local service operated by the GER.
The express services were:
* 2 × Liverpool Street – Doncaster
* Harwich – Doncaster
* March – Doncaster (portion from Harwich to Manchester North Country Continental service)
There were a number of goods services: GER services generally running between Whitemoor (a large marshalling yard located north of March in Cambridgeshire) and Doncaster. GNR goods services ran from Doncaster to/from a variety of destinations including Lincoln, Louth, Peterborough and Grantham.
Modern-day services
![Gainsborough Lea Road Sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Gainsborough_Lea_Road_Sign.JPG)
Services at Gainsborough Lea Road are operated by
Northern Trains
Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT) ...
and
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 ...
.
On weekdays and Saturdays, the station is generally served by an hourly Northern Trains service between and via and . There are also five trains per day between and via Lincoln and , operated by East Midlands Railway.
On Sundays, there is generally an hourly service between Lincoln and Sheffield, with some services continuing to and from . There are no Sunday services to Doncaster or Peterborough.
Future services
In April 2019, the DfT announced that
Abellio
Abellio (also Abelio and Abelionni) was a god worshiped in the Garonne Valley in Gallia Aquitania (now southwest France), known primarily by a number of inscriptions which were discovered in Comminges, in the Pyrenees. He may have been a god of ...
had won its bid for the East Midlands franchise, after Stagecoach was disqualified from the process due to not meeting pension obligations. The service will be renamed "East Midlands Railway" and the contract is due to last until August 2027. As part of this takeover Abellio have pledged to run hourly Peterborough–Lincoln–Doncaster through-service from December 2021, and introduce a new Sunday service between Lincoln and Doncaster, all of which will be operated by refurbished, modern trains with more reliable service, free on-board Wi-Fi and at-seat power sockets.
There have been calls from the local rail users group for the station to receive a direct service to
London King's Cross
King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...
, which would be provided by extending the current
London North Eastern Railway
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four ...
service between London & Lincoln Central (the set for which currently runs empty to/from Neville Hill depot at Leeds and passes through the station en route to Lincoln), or by
Hull Trains
Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement ...
providing services between London and Hull via Lincoln. The operator has yet to formally respond to these proposals.
Signal Boxes
When the station opened in 1877 a signal box called Gainsborough South was provided. there was also a signal box at Gainsborough North which controlled access to the goods yard and Trent branch (known as Lower yard) South signal box was renamed Lea Road in 1895 when it had a new lever frame made by Evans, O' Donnell & Co fitted. North box was replaced by a ground frame.
On 11 February 2009 Gainsborough Lea Road signal box was badly damaged by fire.
The block section (this is the area between signals controlled by different signal boxes) was extended to between Stow Park (southwards) and Gainsborough Trent Junction to the north. The route was upgraded during 2012 and 2013 as part of a £280 million project to relieve the
East Coast Main Line
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...
of freight. This included new colour light signalling and the signal boxes at Stow Park and Gainsborough Lea Rd officially closed in January 2014 with the new signalling controlled from Lincoln Control Centre.
References
*
External links
{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway
Railway stations in Lincolnshire
DfT Category F1 stations
Former Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway stations
Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway
Northern franchise railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire