Humber Coast and City Railway

Humber Coast & City Railway is a proposed railway company by Renaissance Trains in the east of England. It has planned to run between Cleethorpes, Lincoln and Stratford in London.

Background
The success of Hull Trains and their services from London to Hull has led Renaissance Trains to develop a proposal to run trains from Lincolnshire to London, with stops at Grimsby, Lincoln, Peterborough and Cambridge. To avoid increasing congestion on the East Coast Main Line, Humber & City will use the Nottingham-Grimsby route as far as Lincoln Central, then the Peterborough to Lincoln Line to Peterborough, then to Cambridge via Ely before joining the West Anglia Main Line and terminating at Stratford.

As of 2007, Humber & City is no more than a proposal. Renaissance Trains have had discussions with Network Rail with regard to the structure and form of the track access agreement. Humber & City have proposed using 100mph diesel multiple unit trains with both First Class and Standard Class accommodation.

This service has been shown to take more than 3 hours from Lincoln to London, whereas changing at Newark North Gate would usually take no more than 2 hours. In addition, Lincoln is already served by a London train via Nottingham and Bedford (East Midlands Trains), and National Express East Coast is due to run direct services between London and Lincoln in the next few years. These services will take commuters into Central London (King's Cross or St Pancras) which are more central than Stratford, but the Stratford City development will open in 2010 and Stratford is nearer to Docklands.

Proposed route
Below is the route including the villages, towns and cities to be served.
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 * Cleethorpes
 * Grimsby
 * Barnetby
 * Market Rasen
 * Lincoln
 * Sleaford
 * Spalding
 * Peterborough
 * Cambridge
 * Bishop's Stortford
 * Stratford