With traffic on the East Coast Main Line increasing, it has been getting more and more difficult to provide paths for additional services - and freight operators have been finding journey times increasing as locomotives and wagons are often looped to allow passenger trains to maintain their tight schedules. The answer would have been to quadruple the ECML between Doncaster and Stoke tunnel, south of Grantham, but a cheaper solution has been the upgrade of the adjacent 'Joint Line' via Spalding, Sleaford, Lincoln and Gainsborough. After three years of strengthening and renewal work along the full length of this former 'Cinderella' line, the route was formally commissioned at the end of last year. Since then, the number of freights and diverted passenger trains using it has steadily increased and it is expected to become even busier following the May timetable changes.
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