A petition has been launched calling on the mayor’s office to fund a Sunday railway service for Spalding.
There’s currently no Sunday services at all from the town’s station.
The petition calls ‘on Mayor Andrea Jenkyns to use some of the devolution funding provided by Government to enable a Sunday Rail Service on the Redwing line, either by providing a subsidy to East Midlands Railway or providing financial support to an Open Access Rail Operator’.
It was set up by district councillor Jan Whitbourn.
“The purpose of my petition is to request that Mayor Andrea Jenkyns and the leader of Lincolnshire County Council Sean Matthews come to meet with myself, railway campaigners and others from the Spalding and South Holland community to come up with a plan to introduce this new train service,” she said.
“In the past, signalling infrastructure was the reason that it could not be done without hiring more staff but the recent route upgrades mean that these restrictions are no longer a factor.
“My idea is that we offer a five year declining subsidy to the operator to get the service up and running, and with rail services set to come under government control hopefully they will ensure that the service is retained for the long term.
“This is not a party political campaign, and hopefully supporters of all parties will sign the petition to show how much a Sunday service is wanted.
“This service won’t just benefit Spalding, but it will provide connectivity for communities all along the route and hopefully everyone can get behind it.”
The Voice contacted the Mayor’s office but had not received a comment at the time of going to press.
The petition is at www.redwingsundayservice.com
Tulip Talk with Jan Whitbourn
As we head into spring, it is always nice to start with a new challenge, something we could all get involved in.
In recent years, colleagues and I from the Friends of Spalding Station have worked hard to make our railway station a better place to visit and pass through. In addition to campaigning for improvements and campaigning against what would have been devastating staffing cuts.
When many people in town told me that it was a waste of time to campaign against the ticket office cuts, Sir John Hayes MP and I fought for what was right and we won, which was great for the town.
For several years we’ve been asking what you want to see at the station.
Sir John and I are already working with East Midlands Railway, Network Rail, South Holland District Council and other interested parties including Heritage Lincolnshire to try and find ways to bring large parts of the railway station back into use.
This includes trying to find a way to deliver a new café and shops at the railway station and a variety of community spaces and facilities.
We have also been asked if there was a way to address weeds and vegetation on the south end of the platforms beyond the publicly accessible space on both platforms.
This area is actually out of bounds for our Friends of Spalding Railway Station group and we would like to find a way to bring in the contractors who address this area to prevent it from becoming overgrown in the future, but special permission must be sought with involvement from Network Rail to approve any efforts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the introduction of a Sunday railway service is number one on the list of service enhancements.
I know how important this is as many residents of Spalding who tell me that they feel isolated by the lack of a Sunday train service with others saying that they feel ‘trapped’ on Sundays and would like to shop in Lincoln or Peterborough, so why haven’t we got a Sunday service?
During the recent county and mayoral elections, I had worked with Rob Waltham to look into whether mayoral funding could subsidise the introduction of such a service on Sundays.
I have now set up a new petition to try and request that the Mayor of Lincolnshire will consider using devolution money for a period of five years.
Hopefully in that time it would prove the service to be commercially viable.
Indeed, with rails services being taken back into government control, once established hopefully the government would retain the new service.
Many who know me know that I am one of the least political councillors there is.
I belong to a party who my father was a member of for his whole life, and I will also remain a member of that party out of respect to him. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t all work together to deliver something so transformational for not just our community, but others towns and villages along the route.
We do need to work together by petitioning the mayor as a community.
Sir John and I hope to invite the mayor to visit us in person to discuss the possibility of funding such a trial in time for the introduction of the winter 2026 timetable towards the end of this year.
As our community continues to grow, I really do hope that we will see the benefits of devolution with funding used to deliver the core services that we need as a community.
Being able to travel to Lincoln, Peterborough or London on a Sunday would be a real game changer.
Being able to travel home from a weekend trip by rail would be so convenient for us all.
This service has been needed for a very long time.
Sir John said: “Having long campaigned to see more done at the station and following the success of our campaign to keep the ticket office the next steps could include a café, shops and Sunday train services.
“So, I am backing Jan’s latest campaign to bring that about and would like us all to work together to achieve this goal.”
If you would like to add your voice to our campaign for a Sunday service, please visit RedwingSunday
Service.com.
If you could consider sharing the link with family and friends, I would very much appreciate it.
If there are other community priorities and issues that you would like to put on my radar for 2026, please do not hesitate to send me an email: [email protected]
I look forward to hearing from you all and hope that you, friends and family will work together for a better service for our station which will enhance our community as a whole.
