Lincoln Avoiding Line

Peter Hemming makes some interesting points about the loss of the Lincoln Avoiding Line in the 1980s (Open Access, RAIL 964).

Part of the trackbed of the original Avoiding Line was severed

when the connection between the Newark line and Lincoln Central station was built in 1985 - indeed that was the reason for the closure of the Avoiding Line.

Mr Hemming’s suggestion of a chord to the east of the city, connecting the Sleaford and Market Rasen lines, is interesting. But it would require a half-milelong viaduct 20 metres above the Witham valley and sharply curved to avoid the new eastern bypass road (opened in 2019), which has already taken the best alignment

and is at a similar elevation (it passes below the Sleaford line but above the Market Rasen line).

To reach the East Coast Main Line at Doncaster, a second chord would be needed near Wrawby, which would need to be long enough to provide sufficient clearance to pass over the Brigg line without overly steep gradients.

In any case, the level crossing problem in Lincoln has now been alleviated to some extent, at great expense, by the aforementioned eastern bypass (and three other north-south roads built in the 1950s, 1980s and 1990s), as well as a complete reconfiguration of the road network around the Central station, which has allowed the High Street - and its level crossing - to be pedestrianised. Tim Lidbetter, Kingston upon Thames