Peterborough to Lincoln Line

The Peterborough to Lincoln Line is a railway line linking Peterborough and Lincoln Central, via Sleaford and Spalding.

History
The section between Peterborough and Spalding closed to passengers on 5 October 1970 and re-opened on 7 June 1971. North of Spalding, Ruskington re-opened on 5 May 1975. Metheringham followed on 6 October 1975.

Intermediate stations south of Sleaford did not re-open; See Diagram. There has been agitation by local communities to re-open Littleworth on a park-and-ride basis for Peterborough.

Description
The towns and villages served by the route are listed below.
 * Peterborough
 * Spalding
 * Sleaford
 * connections with Grantham to Skegness Line
 * Ruskington
 * Metheringham
 * Lincoln

The route has a regular role as a diversionary route for trains from the East Coast Main Line.

The line has a regular weekday daytime service but is closed between Sleaford & Spalding in the evenings (due to the high staffing costs associated with the large number of manned level crossings on this section) and has no Sunday service.

Infrastructure
The line is not electrified.

Incidents
One person died and 30 people were injured in the Nocton rail accident when a train hit a vehicle on the tracks at the site of a removed bridge, on 28 December 2002.

On 6 December 2004 two people died in a collision between a car and a class 153 DMU on a user operated crossing south east of Helpringham.

Proposed Developments
In October 2008, Network Rail obtained funding for the £233 million upgrade of the line to allow frequent passenger and freight traffic to use the line and free up paths on the East Coast Main Line. In 2012 work started on the line, which will finish at the end of 2014.