MORE than 5,000 of you have now signed our petition to derail plans to scrap the direct express train service from Cleethorpes to Manchester.
MPs Martin Vickers and Austin Mitchell, North East Lincolnshire Council, and various local traders are backing our Keep On Track campaign to keep the service.
As reported, The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a consultation on the Northern and TransPennine franchises, as ministers consider how best to use £1 billion of investment across the network.
The Government is examining the option of terminating the TransPennine Express service from Manchester at Doncaster with a replacement Sheffield to Cleethorpes service being operated by Northern Rail, which is expected to stop at Doncaster en route, possibly as an extension of the existing hourly Northern Sheffield to Scunthorpe service.
You've expressed your views in many ways – by writing to us, commenting on our website, and signing the petition.
Editor Michelle Lalor even travelled to London to meet with Transport Secretary Patrick McLaughlin and hand over signatures and correspondence we have received so far. But Brian Abey, of Harlech Way, has campaigned in his own way – he has written this poem:
The train now standing in Cleethorpes station,
Does the journey to Manchester right across our nation,
Stay on with the ticket that you've just bought,
It'll take you right in to Manchester's airport.
The same thing happens when you're on the way back,
You get on only once to the end of the track,
No struggling with luggage which might be a disaster,
Having to change at Sheffield or Doncaster.
What of the trippers that to Cleethorpes do come,
A straight through journey's the start of the fun,
But the changing of trains takes the wind from one's sails,
It might blow their trip right off of the rails.
For that's what it might come to, say the people that know,
Uneconomic to run, from the start to the finish in only one go,
Inconvenience is no criteria as we travel forth,
To these people that think we live in the north.
The area around us, others do say, the new Klondyke will be,
With wind powered turbines dotting the sea,
Of infrastructure and investment we'll surely needs loads,
To get to us here, not on our roads!
So the train it must be, so don't be short sighted,
Leave the through train alone, be not so benighted,
Forget changing trains which is part of your plan,
There's a gravy train coming, get aboard while you can.
Afterthought.
We had a named train to London, which started in '83,
Use it or lose it, said the powers-that-be,
Seems the same thinking is the permanent way,
Cost not convenience is still, the order of the day.
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