Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield. Express passenger services on the line are operated by East Midlands Railway (EMR). The line is electrified between St Pancras and Wigston, south of Leicester, and the section south of Bedford forms a branch of the northern half of the Thameslink network, with a semi-fast service to Brighton and other suburban services. A northern part of the route, between Derby and Chesterfield, also forms part of the Cross Country Route operated by CrossCountry. Tracks from Nottingham to Leeds via Barnsley and Sheffield are shared with Northern. East Midlands Railway also operates regional and local services using parts of the line. The Midland Main Line is undergoing a major upgrade of new digital signalling and full line electrification from London to Sheffield.[3] High Speed 2 was planned to branch onto the Midland Main Line at East Midlands Parkway railway station.[4] HistoryMidland Counties early developments  The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1870s. The earliest section was opened by the Midland Counties Railway between Nottingham and Derby on 4 June 1839.[5] On 5 May 1840 the section of the route from Trent Junction to Leicester was opened.[6] The line at Derby was joined on 1 July 1840 by the North Midland Railway to Leeds Hunslet Lane via Chesterfield, Rotherham Masborough,[n 1] Swinton, and Normanton. On 10 May 1844 the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway merged to form the Midland Railway. Midland Main Line southern extensionsWithout its own route to London, the Midland Railway relied upon a junction at Rugby with the London and Birmingham Railway line for access to the capital at London Euston. By the 1850s, the junction at Rugby had become severely congested. The Midland Railway employed Thomas Brassey to construct a new route from Leicester to Hitchin via Kettering, Wellingborough, and Bedford giving access to London via the Great Northern Railway from Hitchin.[7] The Crimean War resulted in a shortage of labour and finance, and only £900,000 (equivalent to £108,448,661 in 2023)[8] was available for the construction, approximately £15,000 for each mile (equivalent to £1,807,478 in 2023.[9] To reduce construction costs, the railway followed natural contours, resulting in many curves and gradients. Seven bridges and one tunnel were required, with 60 ft (18 m) cuttings at Desborough and Sharnbrook. There are also major summits at Kibworth, Desbrough and at Sharnbrook where a 1 in 119 gradient from the south over 3 miles (4.8 km) takes the line to 340 feet (104 m) above sea level. This route opened for coal traffic on 15 April 1857, goods on 4 May, and passengers on 8 May.[10] The section between Leicester and Bedford is still part of the Midland Main Line. While this took some of the pressure off the route through Rugby, the GNR insisted that passengers for London alight at Hitchin, buying tickets in the short time available, to catch a GNR train to finish their journey. James Allport arranged a seven-year deal with the GN to run into Kings Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year (equivalent to £2,410,000 in 2023).[8] Through services to London were introduced in February 1858.[11] This line met with similar capacity problems at Hitchin as the former route via Rugby, so a new line was constructed from Bedford via Luton to St Pancras[12] which opened on 1 October 1868.[9] The construction of the London extension cost £9 million (equivalent to £1023 million in 2023).[13] As traffic built up, the Midland Railway opened a new deviation just north of Market Harborough railway station on 26 June 1885 to remove the flat crossing of the Rugby and Stamford Railway.[14] Northernmost sections
Plans by the Midland Railway to build a direct line from Derby to Manchester were thwarted in 1863 by the builders of the Buxton line who sought to monopolise on[clarification needed] the West Coast Main Line. In 1870, the Midland Railway opened a new route from Chesterfield to Rotherham which went through Sheffield via the Bradway Tunnel. The mid-1870s, saw the Midland line extended northwards through the Yorkshire Dales and Eden Valley on what is now called the Settle–Carlisle Railway. Before the line closures of the Beeching era, the lines to Buxton and via Millers Dale during most years presented an alternate (and competing) main line from London to Manchester, carrying named expresses such as The Palatine and the "Blue Pullman" diesel powered Manchester – London service (the Midland Pullman). Express trains to Leeds and Scotland such as the Thames–Clyde Express mainly used the Midland's corollary Erewash Valley line, returned to it, and then used the Settle–Carlisle line. Expresses to Edinburgh Waverley, such as The Waverley travelled through Corby and Nottingham. Under British Railways and privatisationMost Leicester-Nottingham local passenger trains were taken over by diesel units from 14 April 1958, taking about 51 minutes between the two cities.[15][full citation needed] When the Great Central Main Line closed in 1966, the Midland Main Line became the only direct main-line rail link between London and the East Midlands and parts of South Yorkshire. The Beeching cuts and electrification of the West Coast Main Line brought an end to the marginally longer London–Manchester service via Sheffield. In 1977, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain's rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options that included electrifying the Midland Main Line from London to Yorkshire by 2000.[16] By 1983, the line had been electrified from Moorgate to Bedford, but proposals to continue electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield were not implemented.  The introduction of the High Speed Train (HST) in May 1983, following the Leicester area resignalling, brought about an increase of the ruling line speed on the fast lines from 90 miles per hour (145 km/h) to 110 miles per hour (177 km/h). Between 2001 and 2003, the line between Derby and Sheffield was upgraded from 100 miles per hour (161 km/h) to 110 miles per hour (177 km/h) as part of Operation Princess, the Network Rail funded CrossCountry route upgrade. In January 2009, a new station, East Midlands Parkway, was opened between Loughborough and Trent Junction, to act as a park-and-ride station for suburban travellers from East Midlands cities and to serve nearby East Midlands Airport.[17] Since then, 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) running has been introduced on extended stretches. Improved signalling, increased number of tracks, and the revival of proposals to extend electrification from Bedford to Sheffield. Much of this £70 million upgrade, including some line-speed increases, came online on 9 December 2013 (see below).[18] As of April 2025, the line has been electrified from London St Pancras to Wigston South Junction.[19][20] Network Rail route strategy for freight 2007Network Rail published a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007;[21] over the coming years a cross-country freight route will be developed enhancing the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, increasing capacity through Leicester, and remodelling Syston and Wigston junctions. Network Rail 2010 route plan Traffic levels on the Midland Main Line are rising faster than the national average, with continued increases predicted. In 2006, the Strategic Rail Authority produced a Route Utilisation Strategy for the Midland Main Line to propose ways of meeting this demand;[22] Network Rail started a new study in February 2008 and this was published in February 2010.[23][24][25][26] After electrification, the North Northamptonshire towns (Wellingborough, Kettering, and Corby) are planned to have an additional 'Outer Suburban service' into London St Pancras, similar to the West Midlands Trains' Crewe – London Euston services, to cater for the growing commuter market. North Northamptonshire is a major growth area, with over 7,400 new homes planned to be built in Wellingborough[27] and 5,500 new homes planned for Kettering.[28][29] Highlights include:[30]
Thameslink Programme
 The Thameslink Programme has lengthened the platforms at most stations south of Bedford to 12-car capability. St Pancras, Cricklewood, Hendon, and Luton Airport Parkway were already long enough, but bridges at Kentish Town mean it cannot expand beyond the current 8-car platform length. West Hampstead Thameslink has a new footbridge and a new station building. In September 2014 the current Thameslink Great Northern franchise was awarded and trains on this route are currently operated by Thameslink. In 2018 the Thameslink network expanded when some Southern services merged into it. Station improvementsIn 2013/14 Nottingham station was refurbished and the platforms restructured. As part of Wellingborough's Stanton Cross development, Wellingborough s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
