Skegness railway station is to benefit from over £3.3 million investment by East Midlands Railway (EMR) as a result of funding from the Government's Town Deal Fund.
East Midlands Railway will work on the project in association with Connected Coast Town Deal, which oversees the Town Deal projects and Towns Fund investment in Skegness, East Lindsey District Council, and Network Rail. The Connected Coast Town Deal is programme of investment that was given the go-ahead by the government in 2022.
Improvements to the station will start later this year and will see the layout of the station completely reconfigured to improve passenger flow. Among other work, there will be several enhanced facilities, including a standard accessible toilet and a changing places toilet, two new start-up offices, a community café, and retail outlets. The station will also receive full upgrades to its mechanical and electrical systems, upgraded heating and ventilation, and better IT and security systems.
Outside the station, there will be better access routes for both pedestrians and vehicles, a reconfigured Taxi / drop-off area, a new pedestrian route into the station, improved access to the adjacent bus station, and provision of a new waste and storage compound. An external area for a community café will be provided and the concourse and cycle facilities will be upgraded.
The Town Deal Fund was announced in 2019, and in 2021 Skegness secured £24.5M in Town Deal funding. Since then, East Midlands Railway has been in discussions the with Connected Coast Town Deal, East Lindsey District Council, Sustrans, The Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service and Accessibility Panels to ensure the improvements to the railway station take into account the views of the local community.
Will Rogers, Managing Director for EMR, said: “We're delighted the investment at Skegness railway station has been approved and we're excited to work alongside Connected Coast Board, East Lindsey District Council, and Network Rail to significantly improve the facilities for our customers.
“The development will transform Skegness station as the gateway to the town, by encouraging integration with the surrounding community and offering an improved customer experience to all station visitors.”
Robert Goulding, Station & Depot Portfolio Surveyor for Network Rail said: “This generous investment will help us deliver a much better experience for the thousands of passengers who use Skegness station each year.
“Our collaborative approach means that we can bring about a whole package of improvements, both inside and outside of the station. We're looking forward to seeing the plans come to life and start to make a real difference for the seaside town.”
Chris Baron, Chair of Connected Coast Town Deal, said: “The redevelopment of Skegness Railway Station is an important project for the town, for both local people and visitors alike.
“As a result of the work and connecting to the bus station from the Skegness Interchange, the station will offer an enhanced experience, an improved welcome to the town and coast, and it will promote better connectivity with Skegness and the coastline.
“Ultimately, it will become more of a destination station with better facilities and more footfall. We look forward to seeing the project being delivered over the coming months.”
Cllr Craig Leyland, Leader of East Lindsey District Council, said: “Having a welcoming, accessible and passenger-focussed railway station is vitally important to our residents who use the station for work and pleasure as well as visitors and holidaymakers who stay here. For many tourists, their first impression of Skegness starts when they arrive at the station, so it is vitally important they have a good experience.
“I'm absolutely delighted that by working with partners through the Connected Coast Town Deal that East Midlands Railway is able to make these investments which will benefit the town.”
This sounds all very nice. Unfortunately at the same time, the booking office at Skegness station is one EMR intend to close. There’s also the issue of trains being badly overcrowded during the summer mainly down to the number of times the diagrammed 4 car ended up being half that as a unit was either not available, or put on to bolster the NW-East Anglia service. Additionally, we now have a situation where staff cannot replenish water supply on trains even where time permits. Having traveled on the 1S02 Adelante to Derby last summer, because the incoming service it worked was to capacity, no water supply for hand washing was available for any of us in the returning service.
Whilst the improvements are welcome, they appear to be largely cosmetic. It will be interesting to see who will want to take up retail units considering the number of vacant shops there are in the nearby town centre!
With this and the Boston station upgrade there is no mention of ticket offices – introducing the RDG plans to do away with them through the back door it seems
As a former Skegness Resident – So the £720,000 Station make-over in 2011 is now a waste of money. That change shunted passengers out the wrong exit direction and a long walk around to the bus station. Perhaps the new plan might form an exit along side the existing booking hall and cafe, to the bus station. Probably putting a temporary Starbucks outside and closing the existing cafe & booking hall down. Such a shame. Then the existing “wavy” ground architectural item to be scrapped ? Safer than the boy´s bike accident in 2012 riding long the dips.
The idea of having the taxis adjacent to the building rather than across busy road junctions is to be welcomed.
It looks like the existing main building roof will be retained with its dark outlook complete with anti-bird roof netting.
Where is the Jolly Fisherman statue going to be located?
The new image shows that the existing building opposite the platforms ends are to be occupied- now for years closed up.
There is already direct access to the bus station by way of a gate close to the defunct platform 7. The only time this access is not available is when the station is closed overnight.