PROMISE TO PAY
The following email was received from the Community Ambassador at East Midlands Railway (EMR) in response to my queries around how to pay in cash before boarding the train. The email read: ”The purpose of a Promise to Pay slip – issued by the Smart Kiosk (SK) machines at Carlton and Netherfield – is to give customers a cash payment option where a machine will not accept cash. “To obtain a Promise to Pay, there are just a few buttons to press on the SK. The customer then uses this slip on board the train to buy the ticket with the guard, using cash.
EMR added: “We’d like to reassure you that we could not expect any Revenue Protection Officer to issue a penalty fare to someone physically unable to use a SK to obtain a Promise to Pay – like a disabled person.”
I have found how to obtain a Promise to Pay ticket from the SK. Touch the screen and 4 options will come up. Bottom right-hand side is the one you Want. Touch this and you will be asked to type in your destination. Carlton or Netherfield are automatically given as the station you are travelling from. If you type in ‘Derby’, it will show a number of stations with Derby in their name, so press ‘Derby EMR’. Press to continue and it will ask how many are travelling. Choose ‘4’ if you want a group travel ticket. Press ‘continue’ and it will issue a Promise to Pay ticket, which you can present to the guard who will issue you with the ticket required. Promise to Pay tickets are valid for two hours and payment is required in cash.
None of the posters tell you that you have this option, so some people have been put off travelling by train.
TIMETABLE CHANGES
Drastic changes are being made to train times at Carlton from December 14. Netherfield will also lose the 08.55 to Skegness, replaced by one at 06.40! The timetable will be released mid-November, I have obtained some of the new times from December 14. During day times trains at Carlton are every hour with trains in the daytime going through to and returning from Lincoln every hour. Also Burton Joyce is at last getting an hourly service. On Sundays, from late morning, Carlton will get an hourly service.
ENGINEERING WORK
Always check when travelling at weekends. I know that on Sat, November 8, the Nottingham to Skegness service will be a bus from Grantham to Sleaford and on Sunday (9) it will be a bus from Nottingham to Sleaford.
On Saturday, November 15 and Sun 16 Nov there will be no trains between Nottingham and Leicester with bus replacements in place.
EMR NEWS
ANPR car parking is being installed at stations across the network. Nottingham is scheduled to be introduced on Monday, December
Secret fares: book in advance and specify a timeslot (morning, afternoon, evening) and find out 24 hours before departure what train you are booked on. Example of savings – London to Nottingham from £15 and Nottingham to Norwich from £16. Visit https:/secretfare.seatfrog.com
New class 810 ‘Aurora’ trains: Entry into service is now expected from late 2025 with a phased roll out continuing through 2026.
Other changes to train services from December 14th: Lincoln to Matlock trains will run every hour via Nottingham. Every 2 hours these trains will continue from Lincoln to Cleethorpes and return. The Nottingham to Leicester local service will be an hourly shuttle. This means that no direct trains will run from Carlton to Leicester or return.
20 YEARS OF STATION ADOPTION
In October 2005 I wrote to Central Trains to say I was interested in the Station Adoption scheme. It was April 2006 before I was allowed to start, but distributed the winter 2005 timetables. I have always tried to promote rail travel and remember back to 1960 helping my father, who was Station Master at West Hallam, to deliver leaflets in the area advertising an excursion to Blackpool for the illuminations. It was a popular trip that got back around 03.15am on Sunday Morning. In the mid 1990’s I obtained permission from British Rail Publicity Department to print (duplicate) timetables which I distributed locally to places like Canton library. I also wrote to British Rail to see if more trains could call at Netherfield. Their reply was that it would interfere with trains on the East Coast mainline, as this was before the new chord line was put in at Allington Junction. Skegness trains had to then use the East Coast line from Grantham to Barkston Junction and then branch off to Sleaford.
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
No trains on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in our area. Trains run a weekday service on New Year’s Day from around 09.00am.
News that Carlton is getting regular direct trains to Lincoln from December has been warmly welcomed by many that I have talked to.
£3.3 million is being spent on two platforms at chesterfield to improve their structural integrity. It will not affect train services and is due for completion in March 2026.
Work to revamp paths, remove and replace ramps and a staircase is to take place at Cleethorpes to make it disability access compliant.
Great news on getting an hourly service from Carlton to Lincoln – will make my commute much more flexible!
The growing population around the Netherfield area, in my opinion, justifies all trains stopping at Carlton to give a half hourly service. I will scrutinise the new timetable when published to see if this is feasible. The rotten service from Netherfield station is scandalous. As of Tuesday 4th November the new EMR timetable from mid December was still not available. LNER published theres weeks ago