East Midlands Railway (EMR) has repeated the advice it gave in May passengers travelling to Skegness to book in advance in order to secure their place on a specific train during the busy summer season which begins on Monday (9 July).
The seaside resort is a very popular destination, with the busiest days being Friday, Saturday and Monday.
EMR will be operating queuing systems at Nottingham and Skegness stations, which will help manage the increased number of passengers. Passengers who have not booked in advance will only be boarded on trains where space is available, so may experience delays.
However, the operator will allow passengers who have pre-booked to join a fast-track queue which guarantees their place on the train.
EMR expects that there will be some space on trains available for passengers wanting to board trains at stations between Nottingham and Skegness.
The operator is advising Season Ticket holders to join the booked space queue if travelling from Skegness or Nottingham. At other stations on the route, they may simply board the train.
In previous years, by the time the Nottingham to Skegness service reaches Grantham and Boston, the service has sometimes been full. This year, to help passengers from these locations, EMR will provide a direct bus service to Butlins and Ingoldmells – more information on times can be found on EMR's website.
As in previous years, EMR will also run a number of Skegness Summer Special services which will start at Derby.
More information about EMR's Skegness Summer services is available on its website 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.”
EMR is forecasting that its summer trains to Skegness will be full to capacity and so is encouraging booking in advance, and is running buses from intermediate stations. But booking in advance won’t magically increase the capacity of the trains, so some people will presumably be denied travel anyway. Normally anyone offering goods or services supplies a sufficient quantity of them to satisfy demand, rather than adopting measures to discourage their use. Is there something stopping EMR putting on more trains?