Brigg Line Adventures – A winters’ trip to Cleethorpes🚂

On a chilly winters’ day in mid January we visited the seaside town of Cleethorpes in North-East Lincolnshire. Were we feeling okay? Perhaps a bit crazy? There was a good reason for our out of season trip to the coast I swear…

This wasn’t an ordinary day – my town had its first Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg service in over a year. I made this trip because I had been craving the sea air, but it was also to support this route. It has been cut before, and it is in constant danger of being cut for good. You see, this particular route, which serves the small market towns of Brigg and Kirton Lindsey, once ran every day, but it was reduced to a pitiful Saturday-only service in 1994 (I was not even alive then!). There are other ways you can get from my town to Cleethorpes, but this service is a lifeline for some rural communities. Brigg and Kirton Lindsey are both in Lincolnshire, a county which lost dramatic patches of railway over 60 years ago thanks to the cruel hand of Beeching. Despite this, the threat of losing even more public transport always looms.

The journey from my town to Cleethorpes took just over an hour and 15 minutes; if the coast isn’t your thing, Kirton Lindsey and Brigg are two small market towns worth visiting, with an abundance of local shops and cafes at each. I have recently visited both and will post about these soon. Cleethorpes Station is conveniently located right on the seafront, so you can hop straight off the train and start exploring. You are only a couple of minutes from the pier & Papa’s Fish and Chips, the beach, and the arcades. Going by train saved us from a tiring car journey, and the nightmare of finding a car parking space on a weekend day! My return ticket cost £11.90 with a railcard – considering the distance travelled, I felt this was good value. As for visiting Cleethorpes during the winter… a decent amount was still open for us to enjoy. Cleethorpes is home to an expansive nature reserve on its seafront, which can be enjoyed all year round, and for free. We also enjoyed the arcades for an hour or so (even if we left empty handed…).

If there is one message I want you to take away from this post, it’s what you can discover, all year round, by taking your local train service. It can be well worth leaving your car on the drive sometimes (for environmental reasons too!), and using your local public transport to explore somewhere new. Without realising it, you are also helping to ensure the future of local transport services for communities – demand isn’t always a guarantee for something staying open, but it sure helps…

If you would like to find out more about a project advocating for more regular Brigg to Cleethorpes trains, they have a website, and an active Twitter account.