Spalding businesses are pleading with shoppers not to stay away after a quiet first Saturday of five weekends’ rail maintenance.
With trains diverted through South Holland due to part of the East Coast Main Line being shut, it had been feared that some town centre roads would be gridlocked due to a huge increase in level crossing barriers downtime.
However, the publicity before the first of the five successive weekends of diversions appeared to cause a downturn in visitor numbers.
Wayne Mansfield, manager of The Loft in Swan Street, said: “It was noticeably quieter and our money was about 25 per cent down.
“On Saturday the car park in front of Sainsbury’s and Argos was not as busy as usual.”
However, Mr Mansfield did not blame the Press for publicising the story and he urged people not to stay away from the town centre over the next four weekends while the East Coast Main Line work continues.
Spalding and District Area Chamber of Commerce president Phil Scarlett spoke to a handful of businesses who all reported a quiet day.
He said: “They were wondering where everyone had gone, whereas I’ve got one or two contacts in Peterborough who said it had been a good day there.”
And referring to future Saturdays, he said: “It just requires people to be sensible. If you’ve got a deadline to be somewhere, just allow yourself a little more time.”
A total of 103 trains passed through Spalding on Saturday.
