East Midlands Railway is advising passengers to Skegness to book in advance if they want to guarantee their space on a specific train to the seaside this summer.
The seaside resort is as popular as ever with EMR passengers, and the operator expects a bumper year as beachgoers head for the coast.
The train company is encouraging holidaymakers to book ahead – especially between July 9 and September 9, and especially on the busiest days: Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays.
Rail enthusiasts visiting Skegness may like to take the opportunity to ride on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway.
EMR will use queuing systems at Nottingham and Skegness to help manage the increased number of passengers. However, those who have pre-booked will be able to join a fast-track queue, guaranteeing their place on the train. Passengers from Nottingham who do not book in advance may face delays, as they will only be allowed to board trains where space is available.
EMR believes that it has managed capacity in a way that will mean there should be some space on the train available for passengers who join the train at stations between Nottingham and Skegness.
The operator is advising Season Ticket holders to immediately join the booked space queue if travelling from Skegness or Nottingham. At other stations on the route they may simply board the train.
EMR has admitted that in the past, by the time the Nottingham to Skegness service reaches Grantham and Boston, the service can sometimes be full. This year, to help passengers from these locations, on selected days and times, EMR will provide a direct bus service to Butlins and Ingoldmells. More information on the times of this service can be found on EMR's website.
As in previous years, EMR will also run a number of Skegness Summer Special services starting at Derby.
More information can be found here: Train travel to Skegness this Summer is different.
Neil Grabham, Customer Services Director at East Midlands Railway, said: “Skegness remains a very popular destination for holidaymakers and this year will be no different.
“We want our customer's holiday to start as smoothly as possible and that's where booking a place beforehand comes in.
“Booking ahead allows customers to have peace of mind and guarantees a place on board.
“Likewise, customers from Boston and Grantham will be able to take advantage of a direct bus services to the coast on selected days – helping them to quickly get to those big holiday resorts.
“As in previous years, holidaymakers should also keep an eye out for some special treats we have organised for families travelling on this route this summer.
“Customers can also take advantage of our free vacuum packs which will enable them to shrink wrap their clothes and bedding – meaning more space for everyone on board.”
As someone who lived a few Km north of Skegness for a number of years and regularly travelled by train and witnessed Oliver Cromwell´s visit, my take is in agreement with others that EMR runs the basic minimum service all year round. Some years ago when most of the track was replaced between Boston and Skegness, it was grief on the replacement buses, but as they were non stop, they beat the train times.
If only EMR still had their HST fleet, then they could have been used on all the Notts to Skeg trips with no customer inconvenience, at the busy times.
I did the Skegness run last summer following the 20s railtour. A 4 coach train packed to the bilges and a queue at Skeg enough for 10 coaches. The departure was like the last helicopters out of Saigon. They were asking for single passengers with no luggage at the end, families with a week’s luggage were just left standing whilst the air was full of the cries of children who had been queueing for hours. Surely, surely someone can run a better service than this. On the way back to Notts, the guard refused to allow anyone else on at the intermediate stations, some of whom had been refused access to the previous train an hour before. EMR need to sort this out for the summer, longer more frequent trains would seem to be the obvious answer.
I went recently and a lot of visitors were viewing the wind turbines out to sea. There’s also a vertical turbine on the pier.
All down to rail company refusing to run more services and longer trains and lack of investment in new rolling stock.