East Midlands Trains has applied to the Office of Rail and Road to extend its Matlock to Nottingham service through to Newark Castle on Saturdays from the May timetable change.
The number of trains between Nottingham and Newark Castle will almost double, with 11 trains operating each Saturday eastbound and 13 westbound.
The service was similarly extended Mondays-Fridays from May 2015. EMT says that since the enhancements to Friday’s service were introduced the number of passenger journeys has increased by 11.7% (taken over 23 weeks).
The application has been made as part of the Service Level Commitment made under its recent franchise Direct Award contract with the Department for Transport.
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BigTone - 15/01/2016 00:41
Don't stop there, carry on to Lincoln
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Rob Weller - 18/01/2016 11:24
Presumably EMT would prefer to run through to Lincoln but the lack of a bridge (or a plan for a bridge) to replace the flat crossing critically restricts the number of available paths. Maybe the long term plan is to have many trains terminating at Newark Castle to boost the case for the bridge. Hopefully this project will find its way out of the 'too difficult' tray at some point soon.
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