New campaign group seeks better rail service between Peterborough and Lincolnshire

The group has been set up by David Mortimer, with one of the main aims being to get a Sunday service between Spalding and Peterborough.

There is currently no Sunday service on the route that suffered a further blow last month with the announcement that the shuttle service between the two stations was to come to an end.

The service ran directly between the two places in the mornings and evenings and was first introduced in June 1971 after Spalding had been a victim of the Beechings cuts to the railways.

The service has been subsumed into the East Midlands Railway Peterborough to Lincoln service, which offers a stop at Spalding.

The group is also dedicated to improving connections between other places in Lincolnshire such as Sleaford, Ruskington and Metheringham and would like to see disused stations such as Peakirk, Lutterworth, Pinchbeck and Donnington reactivated and better connected to both Lincoln and Peterborough.

In November 2020, the Department for Transport revealed the 15 successful bidders for the second round of the Restoring your Railway Fund, which was designed to reinstate historic stations and restore passenger services closed during the 1960s Beeching cuts. Campaigners were disappointed that no Lincolnshire stations were amongst the winning bids.

David said: “We are certainly fighting for a Sunday service between Peterborough and Spalding but we want to include all the villages along the route.

“No one place can fight on its own so we have come together to fight for transport in areas in desperate need.

“Services are vitally important for people concerned about using their own transport, parking costs, weather, stress and driving in the dark, which is a concern for many older people. At the moment, travelling via Peterborough and Spalding by bus causes a problem for people with luggage, who wish to then travel onto the station.

“We have had some comments that the service will not be used but our response is how do you know? If there was some investment in a good service people could rely on, it would attract travellers. I have seen projects like this work in more remote areas than we are talking about here.

“A city like Peterborough needs a link to the heart of Lincolnshire for a whole variety of reasons: commuting, leisure, travel, university, visiting friends and family, shopping etc.”

David has started a group on Facebook called the Peterborough/Spalding/Sleaford/Ruskington/Metheringham/Lincoln rail Group and has called on people to come and join to have their say. To join the group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/2257390587727286.