Railcard Reminder

Tickets from Netherfield and Carlton can be used interchangeably when travelling to and from Nottingham. For example, you may travel from Netherfield to Derby and return to Carlton.

Railcards provide a discount of around one-third on rail fares. See Railcard for further details.

Conversations at Carlton Station

The 09:35 service to Crewe saw 16 passengers board and one alight. The guard remarked that more passengers appeared to be boarding at Carlton than at Newark.

Eighteen adults and one child boarded the 09:35 service, while one passenger alighted. Another guard commented that the train had been relatively quiet until reaching Carlton.

One passenger explained that although they lived in Carlton, they had spent six months travelling into Nottingham to catch trains before realising they could travel directly from Carlton Station to Newark.

The 08:29 service to Crewe, which starts at Newark, has reportedly been cancelled several times recently. It would be helpful if the 07:50 Lincoln to Nottingham service, which passes through Carlton at 08:39, could make an additional stop when this occurs.

Another traveller arrived at Carlton at 10:40 after boarding the 10:03 Skegness train at Nottingham, having mistakenly been told that it called at Grantham. As that train bypasses Grantham, they left the train at Netherfield.

A better option would have been to remain on board until Bingham and then connect with the 10:45 Nottingham service, which calls at Bingham at 11:01.

East Midlands Railway (EMR) News

The new Aurora trains being introduced on London services have experienced a number of issues, including problems with air conditioning.

Being “old school”, I remember the days when trainspotters could lean out of carriage windows to identify locomotives approaching on adjacent lines. Air conditioning certainly wasn’t something passengers worried about then, although the occasional speck of soot in the eye was not uncommon. I even lost a school cap somewhere between Derby and Tamworth.

Recent summer heatwaves have affected not only passengers but also railway infrastructure and rolling stock. Conditions became so severe that some services on the Nottingham to Worksop and Nottingham to Leicester routes were cancelled after midday.

The Nottingham to Lincoln and Nottingham to Skegness services continued to operate during the worst of the heat, although there were still some cancellations.

At present, London services operated by EMR have been reduced as a result of Aurora train issues, problems affecting the trains they are replacing and occasional industrial action. These issues do not generally affect regional services serving stations such as Carlton and Netherfield, although news coverage does not always make that distinction clear.

2006: Twenty Years as a Station Adopter

Looking back at notes from June 2006:

• A Nottingham City Transport bus strike affected three Saturdays, resulting in increased rail usage from both Netherfield and Carlton.
• The 11:25 service to Leicester was cancelled on 10 June, leaving around ten passengers waiting.
• The following train made a special stop, something that was more common at the time, although many passengers would not risk waiting an additional hour in the hope it would do so.
• The 10:11 service from Netherfield to Nottingham was so busy that two intending passengers travelled instead to Carlton to catch the 10:21 service, only just managing to board.
• Central Trains ran a reduced-fare promotion for over-50s during the summer.
• The editor of the Conway Community Newsletter contacted me to request rail-related contributions.
• A local councillor asked for permission to include a short article about station adoption work in the Forum newsletter.
• There were ongoing issues with young people congregating in station shelters and causing nuisance.
• I discovered online journey planners incorrectly listed the 10:11 departure from Netherfield as originating at Carlton. This was reported and subsequently corrected.

Even Further Back

As mentioned in the previous column, British Rail faced significant financial pressures during the 1980s and 1990s.

During the winter of 1994-95 there were no Sunday services between Nottingham and Lincoln. Weekday services operated only every two hours, calling at all stations. As a result, small stations such as Thurgarton received the same number of trains as Newark Castle.

During the Central Trains era, autumn leaf-fall conditions often resulted in only peak-time trains calling at local stations on the Lincoln route, including Carlton.

A particularly notable example of railway revival was the Settle-Carlisle line. A manager initially appointed to oversee its decline instead helped build passenger numbers. When closure proposals were announced in 1989, widespread objections followed and Transport Secretary Michael Portillo declined to approve closure.

Today the route carries freight services, improved passenger operations and regular special trains, while also providing a valuable diversionary route when the West Coast Main Line is closed.

I have tried to achieve improvements at our own local stations, although unfortunately I never possessed quite the same influence as that manager.

Engineering Work

Monday 7 September to Thursday 10 September: The 22:34 Nottingham to Lincoln service will depart a few minutes earlier than usual.

Tuesday 8 September to Friday 11 September: The 00:08 Carlton to Nottingham service (23:00 departure from Lincoln) will be replaced by a bus.