MPs drop to their knees to beg for London train link to historic UK port town
Two members of Parliament have made an extraordinary plea to kneel in the House of Commons to demand a direct rail link between London and the port city of Grimsby.
Sir Edward Leigh and Martin Vickers knelt in the hall, pleading with transport ministers to approve the crucial rail link.
Transport Minister Heidi Alexander acknowledged trains could run on the route “without major infrastructure changes”.
But he also warned that additional funding would be required to support a new stopping model along the proposed line.
Ms Alexander also said “significant improvements would be needed” at the town’s station for services to include a stop at Market Rasen, in Sir Edward’s Gainsborough constituency.
Grimsby, a major port in North East Lincolnshire, is located approximately 230 miles from central London.
“Nationalization was supposed to bring local communities into touch,” Sir Edward told the House of Commons, referring to the Labor Government’s proposal to bring most British rail operators into public ownership.
The Conservative MP and Father of the House said he had been campaigning for a direct London service “for years”.
Dropping down to put his question to Miss Alexander, Sir Edward continued: “What does he want me to do?
“Does he now want me to get down on my knees for this train for our local community that my friend (Martin Vickers) and I have been campaigning for for years?”
The Transport Minister replied: “I think this is probably a first for the Father of the House.
“And I think it underlines the strong feeling he and his constituents feel about improving rail services.
“He is right, I wrote to him on 17 March and said that although we had confirmed that we could run trains without major infrastructure changes, we would need to find additional funding to support the necessary service model changes.
“And for LNER services to come online at Market Rasen, significant improvements will need to be made to the station to ensure a safe and compliant operation at that station.”
When Mr Brigg and Mr Vickers, the Conservative MP for Immingham, stood up to ask questions, MPs shouted: “Take the knee”.
After putting his knee on the ground, he said: “We are the two who begged the ministers for this service.”
Mr Vickers said the LNER, which provides services along the East Coast Main Line from London King’s Cross, had been in public ownership for “a number of years” since 2018 and “yet they have not been able to provide this service”.
He referred to an application by open access operator Grand Central to run trains between King’s Cross and Cleethorpes via Grimsby, which the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) has not yet decided on.
He asked: “Can the Minister at least give assurance that he will look at this with understanding, despite all our requests?”
Transport minister Keir Mather said ORR was “operationally independent”.
