East Midlands Railway (EMR) has announced the return of its Skegness summer specials from Derby and Nottingham using Class 180 trains on the services.
Class 180 trains are normally used on EMR Intercity services to and from London St. Pancras International. They provide more luggage space than the Class 156 trains that operate most of the Poacher Line services to the seaside town.
The Summer Special services will begin at Derby rather than Nottingham as in previous years. They will provide additional capacity and options for customers who want to travel to Skegness this summer.
Services will run every Saturday from 23rd July until 10th September.
The extra services will run as follows:
- from Derby to Skegness departures will be at 07.58 and 09.23;
- return from Skegness to Derby will be at 11.42 and 13.44.
Because of low demand last winter, four services were removed from EMR's timetable. These have been reinstated in the new timetable, that starts on 15th May.
The returning services are 08.46 and 13.46 from Nottingham to Skegness, and 11.14 and 16.14 from Skegness to Nottingham.
Neil Grabham, Customer Services Director for East Midlands Railway, said:
Our Skegness route is very popular with our customers in the summer and every year we help thousands of families as they head to the coast to enjoy all the treats the seaside getaway can offer.
“The Class 180 Intercity style trains will offer customers more luggage room, while the increase of the summer services will also provide people more options of when to travel.”
Alex Saul, Resort Director at Butlin's Skegness, said: “It's great news to see more services coming to Skegness in time for our busy summer season. Increasing the service gives guests more options when planning their journey to resort for their holiday.
“With the return of our popular day visits, we know many guests will be using the train to enjoy a fun filled day at Butlin's Skegness.”
This is great news. Maybe EMR could reinstate the Scarborough summer service.
Probably going to transfer to LNER, when Middlesborough goes bihourly. 10 coaches to York, and splitting to Middlesborough and Scarborough. I’m told the extra train order for LNER is to be announced imminently, but may well not be for Hitachi trains.
Will this summer service be using the Grantham avoiding line ?
That’s all well and good but what about a train from Nottingham to Matlock when will that return ?
Unlike Northern I prtesume EMR hasn’t reduced a commuter service to use these units to provide the service?
We want these trains on the normal service as opposed to the current old grimy cattle trucks with nowhere to put your luggage.
There is nothing wrong with the 156s
Why have you censored my last comment stating the trains on the Skegness route are old dirty and have nowhere to put your luggage which most people going to Skegness have.
We could do with those trains on normal routes to Skegness because the ones on there are old and dirty.
I take my two granddaughters aged 10and7 to Skegness and by the time we get to Grantham they are bored because of no WiFi and uncomfortable because of nowhere to put our luggage.
Those return times can’t be correct, surely.