Lincoln railway station

The station buildings were designed by John Henry Taylor of London in 1848, for the Great Northern Railway company. It is built in a Tudor revival style of yellow brick, with stone dressings and slate roofs, with 6 ridge and 8 side wall stacks. The buildings and footbridge were Grade II listed in 1990.[1]

The station has been the only station in Lincoln since the closure of Lincoln St. Marks in 1985.[2] Like Rotherham Central, the station retained its "Central" suffix for a number of years following St Marks' closure, but since 2019 has been formally known as Lincoln.[3] The station's "welcome" message, recorded by East Midlands Trains, refers to the station as Lincoln Central.[4]

In late-2010, East Midlands Trains announced that it intended to develop an improved customer service area and improve the café and toilets.[5]

Train services run between Lincoln and

• Newark North Gate and Leicester via Newark Castle and Nottingham using the Nottingham–Lincoln line ("Midland line");
• Leeds & Sheffield via Retford and direct to Doncaster via the Doncaster–Lincoln line ("Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line").
• Peterborough & Sleaford via the Peterborough–Lincoln line ("Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line")
• Grimsby Town via Market Rasen, with occasional journeys to Cleethorpes
• London Kings Cross on a two hourly basis, Monday to Saturday.

There is also a once-daily service (Monday to Saturday) to London St Pancras operated by East Midlands Railway. As of 21 October 2019, the LNER service operates on a two hourly basis.[6]

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Collingham		East Midlands Railway Midland Main Line (limited service)		Terminus
Hykeham		East Midlands Railway Nottingham-Lincoln Line
Saxilby		East Midlands Railway Doncaster-Lincoln Line
Terminus		East Midlands Railway Peterborough-Lincoln Line		Metheringham
Hykeham		East Midlands Railway Newark-Grimsby Line		Market Rasen
Saxilby		Northern Trains Leeds-Lincoln		Terminus
Newark North Gate		London North Eastern Railway London-Lincoln		Terminus
Historical railways
Skellingthorpe Line and station closed		Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway		Branston and Heighington Line open, station closed
Waddington Line and station closed		Great Northern Railway Grantham and Lincoln railway line		Terminus
Terminus		Great Northern Railway Lincolnshire Loop Line		Washingborough Line and station closed
Skellingthorpe Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Dukeries Route		Terminus

There are five platforms at the station, numbered 1–5:

• Platforms 1 and 2 are bay platforms used for daytime stabling of trains and for terminating arrivals from the east which will return east (trains arriving from the east which will form westbound services will be routed into one of the through platforms).
• Platforms 3, 4 and 5 are bidirectional through platforms used for services on all routes. All three through platforms are used in whichever way is most operationally advantageous.
• Platform 3 is the platform face adjacent the main station building and is nearest to the station entrance. The ticket barriers, buffet/shop, a waiting room, accessible toilet and staff facilities are all sited on platform 3.
• Platforms 4 and 5 are the two faces of the island platform. Passenger waiting rooms and toilets are on the island platform, as is the staff conference room.

Lincoln Central station is also home to an East Midlands Railway train crew depot; trains are stabled overnight in any or all of the platforms as operationally convenient.

Charter service in Lincoln Central

• East Midlands Railway: Operate a range of Class 153, Class 156 and Class 158 units, with Class 222 units operating the daily service to London St Pancras. Occasionally, the 222s are used on Leicester services when the normal units aren't available.
• Northern: Operate a range of Class 142, Class 144, Class 150, Class 158 units and more recently, Class 195 units.
• London North Eastern Railway: Operates solely Class 800 Azuma trains. The morning peak departure is usually formed of a 9-car Azuma with majority of other departures formed of a 5-car Azuma.

For many years, Lincoln had not been served with a direct rail service to London. However, the awarding of two new rail franchises saw this remedied.

On 14 August 2007, it was announced that National Express East Coast (NXEC) would take over the InterCity East Coast franchise in December 2007. As part of the commitment, NXEC planned to introduce a two-hourly service between Lincoln and London King's Cross, starting in 2009. This service would have alternated with a two-hourly service to York.[9][10] The InterCity East Coast Franchise was passed to East Coast in November 2009. In late 2009 East Coast along with NetworkRail published details of the ECML proposed new timetable, including the Lincoln-London services. In spring 2010 it was announced that this new service would be cut back. East Coast, citing financial restraints during the credit crunch, announced instead just one direct train in each direction per day, with extra services running only as far as Newark North Gate station, meaning Lincoln passengers will still have to change trains there.[11] On 22 May 2011 East Coast started direct Lincoln-London Kings Cross services, albeit in a much reduced number than they had originally planned. There is one train a day to London leaving Lincoln at 07:30 Monday-Friday and 07:33 on Saturday, there is no East Coast Service to London on a Sunday. The return service leaves London at 19:06 Monday-Friday, 18.08 on Saturday, and 19.08 on Sunday. The operation passed over to Virgin Trains East Coast in early 2015 and as of June 2018 the King's Cross service is now operated by London North Eastern Railway. LNER have started running two-hourly trains between Lincoln and King's Cross.[12]

In addition to the London North Eastern Railway service, East Midlands Railway operate one train per day Monday-Saturday from Lincoln to London St Pancras, and a return journey is made in the evening. Monday-Saturday, the East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancras leaves Lincoln at 07.05, and the return journey leaves London St Pancras at 18.05 Monday-Friday, and on a Saturday the service leaves at 17.08.

The new Northern franchise started in April 2016 had service improvements on the Lincoln line – the service frequency to Sheffield & Retford was increased to twice hourly (and to hourly on Sundays), whilst the Lincoln to Sheffield service was incorporated into Arriva Rail North's Northern Connect regional network and extended to Leeds via Barnsley.[13]

In 2006, Humber & City, an open-access operator owned by Renaissance Trains, proposed running services between Cleethorpes and Stratford via Lincoln.

Nottinghamshire County Council, the Department for Transport and Network Rail are in discussion about various improvements to the line towards Nottingham including a doubling of service.[14]

In April 2019, the new East Midlands Railway franchise was awarded which included several key improvements for services in Lincoln. These included an increase of London St Pancras to Lincoln services to 2 trains per day as well as the introduction of hourly services between Doncaster and Peterborough via Lincoln from December 2021 instead of the current hourly Peterborough-Lincoln service and 5tpd between Doncaster and Lincoln. Other improvements as part of the new franchise, hourly services will be introduced between Nottingham and Grimsby Town via Lincoln with limited extensions to Cleethorpes replacing, the current two-hourly service from Newark North Gate to Grimsby Town which will terminate here instead of Grimsby this will be achieved by extended the existing Leicester to Lincoln service to Grimsby Town.[15][16] On 9 May 2019, following the end of the standstill period, Abellio confirmed they planned to extend the Leicester service to Grimsby Town meaning that Lincoln would retain its direct link.[15]

• On 4 June 1962, an express passenger train was derailed due to excessive speed on a curve. Three people were killed and 49 were injured.[17][18]

• Hunt, John (19 November – 2 December 1997). "Lincoln: City of surprises!". RAIL. No. 318. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 24–31. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.

Media related to Lincoln Central railway station at Wikimedia Commons

Lincoln Lines
Doncaster–Lincoln line to Doncaster Sheffield–Lincoln line to Sheffield Pyewipe Junction Boultham Junction West Holmes Junction Nottingham–Lincoln line to Nottingham Holmes Yard Lincoln St. Marks Brayford Wharf Crossing High Street Crossing GN and GE Joint Avoiding Line Lincoln Central Sheffield–Lincoln line to Cleethorpes GN Terrace Crossing Sincil Junction Grantham–Lincoln line to Grantham Washingboro' Junction Peterborough–Lincoln line to Peterborough Lincolnshire loop line to Spalding & Boston