Skegness railway station serves the

seaside resort A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germa ...

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, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, 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-we ...

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 ...

at the terminus of the '' Poacher Line''. 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 len ...

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 ...

, who provide all rail services that run to and from

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

History

The line to Wainfleet was opened in August 1871 by the Wainfleet and Firsby Railway. This line was then extended to Skegness; the station opened on 28 July 1873. Skegr05

Skegness was dubbed "the

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

of the East Coast" or "Nottingham by the Sea" and has a mascot, the Jolly Fisherman (designed by John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway) and a slogan - "Skegness is so bracing" - a reference to the chilly prevailing north-easterly winds that can and frequently do blow off the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

. A statue of The Jolly Fisherman now greets passengers as they arrive at the station when entering through the main entrance. Up until 1966, the railway station had a goods yard with sheds; however, this area along with platform one was demolished between 1980 and 1983. This area is now used as a car park belonging to nearby offices. There was a

Seacroft railway station Seacroft railway station was a station in Seacroft, Lincolnshire.British Railways Atlas.1947. p.17 The station was opened on 28 July 1873 and originally called Cow Bank, but was renamed to Seacroft on 1 October 1900. Passenger services were ...

located just outside Skegness, but this has also now closed. The next station on the line is Havenhouse. In 2006, all locomotive hauled services to Skegness were halted due to the weight of the locos buckling the rails frequently; however, this ban has since been lifted after Network Rail began a track renewal scheme which is now entering the final phase.

Station Masters

*William J. Haslam 1873 - 1882 (afterwards station master at Wood Green) *George Tuckerman 1881 - 1899 *George Henry Dales 1900 - 1906 (afterwards stationmaster at Horncastle) *George Chambers 1906 - 1921 (formerly station master at Littleworth) *William Mountain 1921 - 1929 (formerly station master at Woodhall Junction) *Herbert Joseph Osborn 1930 - 1943 (formerly station master at Woodhall Junction) *W.E. Olle 1943 - 1953 *J.H. Howden 1953 - ????

Services

As of May 2022, there is an hourly service to Nottingham (via Grantham) on weekdays and Saturdays, although certain peak services bypass Grantham and continue straight to Nottingham. On summer Sundays, some services start and terminate at Mansfield Woodhouse. In the winter, a limited service operates (four departures per day, all after midday).

Present day

The current station has toilet facilities with a baby change and a specialist service for the disabled and a small refreshment/newsagent stall. There is 24-hour CCTV in operation at this station and there are staff patrolling the concourse area to give information when trains are due to arrive or depart. There is also a ticket office, staffed for part of the traffic day and a self-service ticket vending machine (TVM) has been installed; this also enables customers who have booked their tickets online to collect them outside office hours. Six platforms remain in place (numbered 2 to 7), however platforms 2 and 7 are now out of use and in practice only two platforms (3 and 4) are used regularly.

Remodelling 2011

Network Rail and Lincolnshire County Council announced a major renovation programme costing £290,000, which has seen the derelict buildings demolished, the customer toilets being modernised and the gents relocated. There was much debate in Skegness about the old stationmaster's house being part of Skegness' heritage and should have been refurbished rather than demolished.

Local transport connections

Skegness railway station has good links to local public transport with a taxi rank at the front of the station. Adjacent to the railway station is the town's bus station which has services in all directions, including frequent buses up the coast as far as Mablethorpe, Louth and Alford all year round.

Picture gallery

Image:Skeg_Station_1Neil_B.jpg, Concourse view 1 Image:Skeg_Staion_2Neil_B.jpg, Concourse view 2 Image:skegnessconcourse.jpg, Concourse view 3 Image:Skegness Railway Station.jpg, Platform view 1 File:Skegr02.jpg, Remodelling work 1 File:Skegr04.jpg, Remodelling work 2

References

* *

External links

1950s video of diesel unit arriving at Skegness
(at end of video) {{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 1873 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Skegness