Stagecoach's response to my enquiry about Retford Station

After the announcement of the awarding of the East Coast mainline franchise to the Stagecoach/Virgin consortium, I wrote, as promised, to Martin Griffiths, CEO of Stagecoach, to ask for more details on what they plan to do to improve Retford station. Yesterday I got a reply from one of his colleagues, here are both letters:

Dear Mr Griffiths,

I am writing to you after the news that Intercity Railways (90%owned by Stagecoach) have won the East Coast Mainline franchise

As I am sure you are aware, Retford Station in Bassetlaw is part of the franchise, indeed I have already looked at the outline for the part of the Station in the Franchise documents. However, I can not see any details of what plans there are for redeveloping the part of the station known as Retford Low-Level, which is used by trains on the Lincoln to Sheffield line.

As you will see from the attached images, Retford Low Level is a bleak and dismal place to wait for trains It has been neglected for years and, as I know from personal experience, a very unpleasant place to wait for a train especially late at night or in bad weather. It has (I believe) the only platform in the East Coast estate that has no safe disabled access, currently those unable to manage the stairs need to ask for assistance to cross the tracks and use the lift on the Eastbound side. Can you let me know what plans there are to renovate this part of the franchise estate.

In addition, I would be interested to hear if you plan to make more use of Retford Station and have more trains stop there, currently there are only 10 London bound ECML services and 11 northbound services stopping at Retford, Also, as Stagecoach are also the local Bus Service provider, will you work to coordinate the bus & train services better?

I look forward to hearing back from you on these matters,

Yours sincerely,

Leon Duveen

Liberal Democrat PPC for Bassetlaw

Dear Mr Duveen Thank you for your email asking for information on plans for Retford station. The franchise is set to see more than £140m invested in delivering an improved service and a more personalised travel experience for passengers. We are aware of the issues with accessing the low level platforms at Retford station and have plans to submit a funding application as part of the Department for Transport’s Access for All scheme. We believe this would be more effective with local stakeholder support and will be making contact with relevant local stakeholders to try and secure support. In addition, we will also be looking to work with Northern Rail, who also operate train services at Retford, to look at future opportunities for delivering joint improvements. As part of our £25million investment in stations and car parks on the route, we will also be increasing the number of car parking spaces at Retford, upgrading the lighting and CCTV to improve security and providing new signage and improved ticketing facilities. The new franchise will deliver benefits to millions of passengers with major new timetable improvements offering direct trains to new destinations and extra trains to many locations. The new timetable has been carefully designed to maximise the benefits for passengers using the trains, track space and resource available in the franchise. Passengers in Retford will benefit from an additional northbound service from the introduction of the major new timetable in 2020. We will also be working in partnership with our colleagues at Stagecoach Bus to help provide better integration between bus services and train services where it is operationally viable. I do hope this covers your points. Thank you once again for your email and comments.

Yours sincerely Andy Sparkes Transition Director, Virgin Trains East Coast

While this sounds good, I remain to be convinced and will keep campaigning for the improvements to happen, sooner rather than later. I will also keep people informed through this blog and elsewhere. I will also campaign for imrovements and more trains on both the Lincoln/Sheffield line and on the Robin Hood Line to Nottingham with the appropraite providers.