Grantham railway station

Grantham railway station serves the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, England and lies on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) 105.5 mi north of London King's Cross.

Description
Junctions near the town also connect to branches to Nottingham, and to Sleaford and Skegness. The station was opened in 1852, and was built close to the factory of Richard Hornsby & Sons.

It is composed of four platforms; platforms 1 and 2 are on the East Coast Main Line and are responsible for express services between London and Scotland. Platform 1 serves exclusively London King's Cross via Peterborough and Stevenage; Platform 2 serves cities of northern England and Edinburgh. Platform 2, 3 and 4 are formed from a large island platform structure. Platform 3 is a bay platform at the northern end of the station that is used to allow local trains to reverse, while Platform 4 is a two-way platform that is used by East Midlands Trains. Only Platform 1 has amenities, including toilets, refreshments and a buffet.

Prior to the reopening of the Allington Chord in 2006, trains for Nottingham – Grantham – Skegness reversed in the station and travelled along the ECML, crossing the ECML via a flat junction, adding to congestion on the main line. Since the opening of the chord they reverse and travel whence they came using the chord, crossing under the ECML using existing tracks.

The journey between London King's Cross and Grantham takes a little over an hour, with most trains currently (2009) provided by East Coast.

In May 2009 National Express East Coast installed ticket barriers.

Typical journey times

 * Newark - 10 min
 * Peterborough - 20 min
 * Sleaford - 25 min
 * Retford - 25 min
 * Doncaster - 35 min
 * Nottingham - 30 min
 * Boston - 50 min
 * York - 1 h
 * Leeds - 1 h 10 min
 * London King's Cross - 1 h 10 mi.
 * Sheffield - 1 h 30 min direct (1 h 15 min via Doncaster)
 * Edinburgh Waverley - 3 h 30 min direct

Line opening
The original station at Grantham (Old Wharf) was opened when the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston & Eastern Junction Railway opened its line from Nottingham on 15 July 1850. This line was taken over by the Great Northern Railway in 1854. This was replaced by the present station which opened on 1 August 1852; the Old Wharf station closed the following day.

The new station was on the GNR's direct line between Peterborough and Retford (the Towns Line), which was completed in 1852. The alternative route via Boston and Lincoln (the Fens Loop Line) had already opened in 1850.

The Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway opened their line from Barkston Junction, 2 miles north of Grantham, to Sleaford in 1857, and on to Boston in 1859. This railway was taken over by the GNR in 1864.

The Grantham to Lincoln line, which branched off the Sleaford line at Honington, was opened in 1867.

Finally, the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway was opened in 1879. This ran from Market Harborough and Leicester Belgrave Road in the south, through Melton Mowbray to Nottingham and Newark in the north, crossing the Grantham to Nottingham line near Bottesford. The GNR operated a Grantham to Leicester service via this route.

Line closure
The Leicester service ceased in 1953.

The Lincoln line was a victim of the Beeching cuts and closed in 1965. The Beeching plan originally envisaged the Lincoln line being retained, although without any intermediate stations, as it formed part of the main route from London to Lincoln, but instead Lincoln trains were diverted via Newark using a new connection between the ECML and the Nottingham to Lincoln line.

Sample train timetable for July 1922
The table below shows the train departures from Grantham on weekdays in July 1922.