Railways’ 150th anniversary events ‘derailed by line closure’

A dramatic landslide from the spoil heap at Hatfield Colliery in February put the nearby railway line out of use, severely affecting key transport links between Cleethorpes, Scunthorpe, Goole, and Doncaster.

It was initially hoped the line would be restored in June or July, but last week Network Rail said it was more likely this would take until September, sparking serious concerns for the effect on tourism businesses in Cleethorpes and the surrounding area.

Nearly three million people visited Grimsby and Cleethorpes in 2011, spending about £462m in the local economy.

But the disruption to services and recent cold snap led some to businesses to describe the Easter bank holiday weekend, normally the start of the tourism season, as one of the worst they could remember, adding to fears about the impact the loss of the line will have on trade in the summer.

And after senior members of North East Lincolnshire Council met with rail chiefs to ask for extra support for businesses affected, they revealed forthcoming activities which may be hit include events various events to mark the 150th anniversary of the advent of the railways.

“It was a constructive discussion and they appreciated where we were coming from in terms of the potential impact on our tourism industries,” council leader Chris Shaw said.

“They didn’t make any promises, but we did feel there’s some room to make progress as we explained to them how vital a good tourist season was for businesses in Cleethorpes and the wider North East Lincolnshire area.”

He added: “There’s some big events coming up in Cleethorpes over the summer and to support this we’ve set aside quite a bit of money to support a marketing drive to get more people into the area for events such as the Festival of Flight, Armed Forces Day and various events to mark the 150th anniversary of railways coming to the area.

“We told Network Rail and TransPennine Express we’re quite happy to talk with our traders and work with them as rail operators to maximise the impact of this marketing money and get passengers travelling over here during the summer.”

The council said it had put forward a number of ideas to help - including possible half-price train fares, extra trains being provided by the operators and shared marketing resources and initiatives to encourage visitors to continue to visit the area during the disruption.

It is expected these will be discussed in more detail at a further meeting.

For its part, Network Rail offered to show council representatives the colliery area affected by the landslip so they could better understand the challenges faced as work continues to remove upwards of a million cubic metres of material to stabilise the tip and allow engineering work to start to replacing the line.

The company has said a combination of the difficult conditions and continuing bad weather mean the original July finish date is at risk.

Hourly buses from Scunthorpe have been put on since the landslip, but is feared the disruption will put off visitors.

Key train operator First TransPennine Express said measures taken to limit the impact include operating nearly 40 buses a day between Scunthorpe and Doncaster and express buses between Doncaster and Cleethorpes, relaxing all ticket restrictions.

Phil Verster, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “We will do anything we can to safely accelerate the repair programme and to reinstate services.

“In the meantime we are working with the operators of passenger and freight traffic to make best use of the network during this difficult time.”