Express passenger services on the line are operated by East Midlands Railway (EMR). The line is electrified between St Pancras and Corby, 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]
History
Midland 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]
Without 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]
Most 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.
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.
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 are underway. Much of this £70 million upgrade, including some line-speed increases, came online on 9 December 2013 (see below).[18]
Network Rail route strategy for freight 2007
Network Rail published a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007;[19] 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;[20]Network Rail started a new study in February 2008 and this was published in February 2010.[21][22][23][24]
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[25] and 5,500 new homes planned for Kettering.[26][27]
Work related to line speed increases, removing foot crossings and replacing with footbridges
Capacity enhancements for freight
Re-signalling of the entire route, expected to be complete by 2016 when all signalling will be controlled by the East Midlands signalling centre in Derby[29]
Upgraded approach signalling (flashing yellow aspects) added at key junctions – Radlett, Harpenden, and Leagrave allowing trains to traverse them at higher speeds[needs update]
Lengthening of platforms at Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Loughborough, Long Eaton, and Beeston stations as well as work related to the Thameslink Programme (see below)
Realignment of the track and construction of new platforms to increase the permissible speed through Market Harborough station from 60 mph to 85 mph saving 30–60 seconds
Electrification (see below)
Re-doubling the Kettering to Oakham Line between Kettering North Junction and Corby as well as re-signalling to Syston Junction via Oakham, allowing a half hourly London to Corby passenger service (from an infrastructure perspective) from December 2017 and creating additional paths for rail freight.[27][32]
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 improvements
In 2013/14 Nottingham station was refurbished and the platforms restructured.
As part of Wellingborough's Stanton Cross development, Wellingborough station is to be expanded.[33]
Wixams between Flitwick and Bedford as part of the new town just outside Bedford. Expected to be built by 2015,[36] scheduled for 2019,[37] but now expected to be 2024.
Some new stations have been proposed:
Clay Cross between Chesterfield and Ambergate/Alferton.[38]
Unlike the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines, the Midland Main Line has not been electrified along its full length. The line was electrified as far as Bedford in the early 1980s, but services relied on diesel traction beyond that.
In 2011 work commenced to extend the electrification, including to both Corby and Nottingham. Increasing costs initially saw this terminated at Kettering in 2017, but in 2021 work began on extending electrification to Market Harborough with plans to extend further to Sheffield.[41][42][43][44]
In May 2022, a briefing to contractors was released ahead of an invitation to tender for Midland Mainline Electrification project work to extend electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield. This scheme is expected to cost £1.3 billion.[45]
In November 2021 the Government announced its Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands which made a number of proposals for the Midland Main Line. These included a commitment to complete the stalled electrification work, an upgrade to digital signalling, and a connection to High Speed 2. The latter would see a junction built south of East Midlands Parkway station rather than the previous plan of an East Midlands Hub further north on the Toton sidings. This will allow HS2 services to connect to both Derby and Nottingham city centres directly using the MML for access, which was a criticism of the previous HS2 eastern leg proposal.[4]
Route definition
The term Midland Main Line has been used from the late 1840s to describe any route of the Midland Railway on which express trains were operated.
In 1868, the term was used to describe the Midland Railway main route from North to South through Sheffield[49] and also on routes to Manchester, Leeds and Carlisle.
Under British Rail the term was used to define the route between St Pancras and Sheffield, but since then, Network Rail has restricted it in its description of Route 19[50] to the lines between St. Pancras and Chesterfield.
The principal operator is East Midlands Railway, which operates four InterCity trains every hour from London St Pancras with two trains per hour to both Nottingham and Sheffield. EMR use Class 222 Meridian trains in various carriage formations for its InterCity services.
EMR also operate a twice hourly commuter service from London St Pancras to Corby, which is branded as EMR Connect, using Class 360 Desiro electric trains.[51]
CrossCountry runs an hourly service between Derby and Sheffield on its route between the South West and North East, and twice-hourly services between Nottingham and Derby, continuing to Birmingham and Cardiff. Northern runs an hourly service from Leeds to Nottingham via Barnsley and Alfreton. TransPennine Express also operates in the Sheffield area.
Route description
The cities, towns and villages served by the MML are listed below. Stations in bold have a high usage. This table includes the historical extensions to Manchester (where it linked to the West Coast Main Line) and Carlisle (via Leeds where it meets with the 'modern' East Coast Main Line).
Network Rail groups all lines in the East Midlands and the route north as far as Chesterfield and south to London as route 19. The actual line extends beyond this into routes 10 and 11.
London to Nottingham and Sheffield (Network Rail Route 19)
Trent Junction to Clay Cross Junction via Derby (the original line), the Nottingham branch, and the Erewash Valley Line each diverge north of East Midlands Parkway
Line-side train monitoring equipment includes hot axle box detectors (HABD) and wheel impact load detectors (WILD) ‘Wheelchex’, these are located as follows.[55][57][54]
Line-side monitoring equipment on the Midland Main Line
This line was closed in the 1960s between Matlock and Buxton, severing an important link between Manchester and the East Midlands, which has never been satisfactorily replaced by any mode of transport. A section of the route remains in the hands of the Peak Rail preservation group, operating between Matlock and Rowsley to the north.
Leeds to Carlisle
For marketing and franchising, this is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Settle–Carlisle Railway.
World War I prevented the Midland Railway from finishing its direct route through the West Riding to join the Settle and Carlisle (which would have cut six miles from the journey and avoided the need for reversal at Leeds).
The first part of the Midland's West Riding extension from the main line at Royston (Yorks.) to Dewsbury was opened before the war. However, the second part of the extension was not completed.
This involved a viaduct at Dewsbury over the River Calder, a tunnel under Dewsbury Moor and a new approach railway into Bradford from the south at a lower level than the existing railway (a good part of which was to be in tunnel) leading into Bradford Midland (or Bradford Forster Square) station.
The 500 yards (460 m) gap between the stations at Bradford still exists. Closing it today would also need to take into account the different levels between the two Bradford stations, a task made easier in the days of electric rather than steam traction, allowing for steeper gradients than possible at the time of the Midland's proposed extension.
Two impressive viaducts remain on the completed part of the line between Royston Junction and Dewsbury as a testament to the Midland's ambition to complete a third direct Anglo–Scottish route. The line served two goods stations and provided a route for occasional express passenger trains before its eventual closure in 1968.
The failure to complete this section ended the Midland's hopes of being a serious competitor on routes to Scotland and finally put beyond all doubt that Leeds, not Bradford, would be the West Riding's principal city. Midland trains to Scotland therefore continued to call at Leeds before travelling along the Aire Valley to the Settle and Carlisle. From Carlisle they then travelled onwards via either the Glasgow and South Western or Waverley Route. In days gone by the line enjoyed named expresses such as the Thames–Clyde Express and The Waverley.
As with most railway lines in Britain, the route used to serve far more stations than it currently does (and consequently passes close to settlements that it no longer serves). Places that the current main line used to serve include
^Davies, R.; Grant, M.D. (1984). Forgotten Railways: Chilterns and Cotswolds. Newton Abbot, Devon: David St John Thomas. ISBN0-946537-07-0, p. 110–111.
^Barnes, E. G. (1969). The Rise of the Midland Railway 1844–1874. Augustus M. Kelley, New York. p. 308.
^Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books
^"Midlands line 'to be electrified'". BBC News Online. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012. A £500m scheme … Transport Secretary Justine Greening is set to outline plans to complete the electrification of the route from Sheffield to London on Monday.
^Odell, Mark; Parker, George (13 July 2012). "Osborne backs £10bn rail plan". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2012. announcement, expected on Monday, is likely to include a £530m plan to complete electrification of the Midland mainline between Bedford and Sheffield