Newark North Gate railway station

Newark North Gate
Location
Place	Newark-on-Trent
Local authority	District of Newark and Sherwood
Coordinates	53°04′52″N 0°47′56″W / 53.081°N 0.799°WCoordinates: 53°04′52″N 0°47′56″W / 53.081°N 0.799°W
Grid reference	SK804545
Operations
Station code	NNG
Managed by	Virgin Trains East Coast
Owned by	Network Rail
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.977 million
2011/12	1.096 million
2012/13	1.179 million
2013/14	1.194 million
2014/15	0.986 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1 August 1852
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Newark North Gate from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Newark-on-Trent
Legend East Coast Main Line Nottingham to Lincoln Line Newark Crossing Newark North Gate Newark Castle Great North Road Nottingham to Lincoln Line East Coast Main Line

Newark North Gate station is a railway station in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England, on the East Coast Main Line 120 miles (193 km) north of London Kings Cross, between Grantham and Retford.

Newark-on-Trent is a market town, 25 miles (40 km) east of Nottingham. Newark has another station, Newark Castle, operated by East Midlands Trains and closer to the town centre. It links Newark to Nottingham, Lincoln and other cities in central England.

History

The station is on the Great Northern Railway Towns Line from Peterborough to Doncaster which opened in August 1852, the easier to construct Fens Loop Line via Boston and Lincoln had opened two years earlier.^[1]

The station became a junction in 1879 with the opening of the GNR branch to Bottesford, built as a northern extension of the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway which opened at the same time. Services from Newark were provided to Northampton or Leicester and also to Nottingham. Services onto the joint line from Newark were withdrawn by 1922.^[2] The line was much used for through goods, especially between Newark and Northampton. The joint line closed in 1962 except for isolated fragments, but the Newark to Bottesford Junction section survived until 1988.

The short connection to the Newark Castle to Lincoln Central line was opened in 1965 by British Rail to maintain a link between the ECML and Lincoln following the closure of the branch from the latter to Grantham. This remains in use today by trains to Lincoln and Grimsby.

In January 2009, National Express East Coast installed ticket barriers.

Services

Platforms 1 and 2, for Virgin Trains East Coast run intercity trains south for stations to London Kings Cross, as well as to the North for stations to Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne and Scotland. From platform 3, Virgin Trains East Coast runs trains every 2 hours from London Kings Cross that terminate there and go back to London. One of these a day continues to Lincoln. East Midlands Trains also runs a service to Lincoln Central and Grimsby. Occasional trains on the Nottingham to Lincoln Line also call additionally at Newark North Gate, which involves a cumbersome double reversal. On platform 3, the terminating Virgin Trains East Coast trains are on the south end of the platform while the East Midlands Trains are on the north end. Passengers changing therefore can just walk up the platform.

The station is just south of the Newark Crossing,^[3] one of the few flat railway crossings in the UK. The East Coast Main Line is crossed by the Nottingham-Lincoln line. Trains on the East Coast Main Line not calling at Newark North Gate have to slow from 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) at the crossing. There are plans to grade-separate the crossing by providing a flyover for east-west services, with a shallow enough gradient to accommodate freight trains. A key geographical constraint on the construction of a flyover will be the proximity of the site to the River Trent and the A1 trunk road. The benefits of a flyover would include higher capacity on both the East Coast Main Line and the Nottingham-Lincoln line, for both passengers and freight; journey time improvements; and a more reliable timetable. Network Rail's final Route Utilisation Strategy for the East Midlands estimated that a flyover would have a benefit:cost ratio of 1.4, with further benefits which could not be taken account of in the standard project appraisal procedures. The RUS recommended that the provision of a flyover at Newark was further developed in Control Period 4 (2009–2014) to refine the infrastructure costs and potential benefits, with the possibility of constructing it in Control Period 5 (2014–2019).^[4]

The Current off-peak Service pattern is the following:

Virgin Trains East Coast

• 2tph to London Kings Cross
• 1tp2h to York
• 1tph to Newcastle; some continue to Edinburgh Waverley.
• 1 train a day to Hull Paragon.

Station name

There is significant ambiguity about the correct form of the station's name. Different station name signs on the platforms say "Newark North Gate" or "Newark Northgate". On exiting the station, the old British Rail sign says just "Northgate" and road signs towards the station say 'Northgate'.

Former services

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Claypole		Great Northern Railway East Coast main line		Carlton-on-Trent
Cotham		Great Northern Railway Nottingham to Newark		Terminus
Cotham		Great Northern Railway Leicester Belgrave Road to Newark		Terminus

Station car parks

There are three car parks in the immediate area for the railway station. They are operated by the railway car parks and National Car Parks (NCP).

Railway Northgate Car Park - 289 spaces

NCP Northgate Car Park - 371 Spaces

Of the three main car parks in the area, the NCP and the Railway car parks are the most conveniently situated for the railway station facilities.

Notes

1. Body, p.116
2. Bradshaws Railway Guide, July 1922.
3. http://wikimapia.org/6526956/Newark-Crossing
4. "East Midlands". Network Rail. 26 February 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2010.

References

• Body, G. (1986), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 1, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 0-85059-712-9
• National Rail
• NCP Newark Northgate Station Car Park

External links

• Media related to Newark North Gate railway station at Wikimedia Commons
• NCP Newark Northgate Station Car Park