Another blow to area’s public transport users
LAST year dad and I had a post-Covid day out at Brigg which turned out to be memorable, if not necessarily for the right reasons! For we were travelling by rail on one of the trains that only runs on a Saturday.
At Grimsby Town Station we learnt that coming back we’d have to board a replacement bus.
Not ideal, but it would give us more time in the small Lincolnshire market town.
Trouble was, at Brigg station there was no mention of any replacement bus service, let alone a real time indicator like those existing at many local bus stops.
So we waited until the departure time had passed. And waited and waited and waited.
In the end we gave things up as a bad job, took a taxi to Barnetby and boarded a train from Manchester to get home again.
This year though we can’t even do this. For according to the latest issue of Rail Magazine, the service – which last ran on New Years’ Day – has been suspended until further notice, expected to be December at the earliest.
What’s more, because the service technically counts as being withdrawn, there is no requirement to provide any replacement buses.
Thus it’s yet another blow to public transport users wanting to take an environmentally-friendly form of travel.
And, it isn’t just leisure users who are affected. I used to know a lady at Gainsborough who didn’t drive, and came on the weekly train to see her brother in the care home where I volunteered. What she’d have to do given the current circumstances, goodness knows.
It all shows how little nonLondon trains matter to the powersthat-be, with their chauffeur driven cars and other privileges.