Lincoln looks set to miss out on the previously planned “Castle Line” upgrade, which would speed up the train service between Lincoln and Nottingham.
Earlier this year, Midlands Connect took these plans to the Department of Transport, citing an approximate 80% approval rate and claiming a boost to the local economy would follow.
For an estimated investment of £18 million, the trains from Nottingham to Lincoln would run at 75mph, rather than the current rate of 50mph, but now it appears that the upgrades are set to end at Newark.
This follows a major change delivered at the Conservative Party Conference to the government’s rail policy and their plans going forward, with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, promising to scrap the HS2 high speed rail and reinvest the money into other transport projects.
After the conference, a map of planned rail upgrades was published by the UK Government as a part of the “New Network North” announcement, which appeared to show the proposed upgrade would only reach Newark.
Hamish Falconer is the Labour Candidate for Lincoln. He says that: “It’s just part of a trend of the government completely ignoring Lincolnshire for levelling up.”
“We’ve just sat here through announcement after announcement, and Lincoln is getting nothing in any of them,” he added.
In a statement, the Conservative MP for Lincoln, Karl McCartney said: “I will continue to make the case to the Government for the line and service upgrade, as I have done in recent times, but it is important to see this in the context of the huge investment the Government has already made in Lincoln’s transport infrastructure.”