Midland Main Line

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. On 5 May 1840, the section of the route from Trent Junction to Leicester was opened.

The line at Derby was joined on 1 July 1840 by the North Midland Railway to Leeds Hunslet Lane, via Chesterfield, Rotherham Masborough, 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 extensions

Without its own route to London, the Midland Railway relied upon a junction at , with the London and Birmingham Railway line for access to the capital at . 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 , via , and Bedford. This gave access to London via the Great Northern Railway from Hitchin. The Crimean War resulted in a shortage of labour and finance; only £900,000 () was available for the construction, approximately £15,000 for each mile (. 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 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 mi takes the line to 340 ft above sea level. This route opened for coal traffic on 15 April 1857, goods on 4 May, and passengers on 8 May. 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 (). Through services to London were introduced in February 1858.

This line met with similar capacity problems at Hitchin as the former route via Rugby, so a new line was constructed from Bedford to , via which opened on 1 October 1868. The construction of the London extension cost £9 million (equivalent to £ million in ).

As traffic built up, the Midland Railway opened a new deviation just north of on 26 June 1885, to remove the flat crossing of the Rugby and Stamford Railway.

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 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 and via presented an alternative (and competing) main line from London to Manchester during most years, 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 , such as The Waverley travelled through and Nottingham.

Under British Railways and privatisation

Most Leicester-Nottingham local passenger trains were taken over by diesel multiple units from 14 April 1958, taking about 51 minutes between the two cities. When the Great Central Main Line closed in 1966, the Midland Main Line became the only direct main line rail link between London, 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 the Hope Valley Line and Sheffield.

In 1977, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain's rail network; by 1979, BR presented a range of options that included electrifying the Midland Main Line from London to Yorkshire by 2000. By 1983, the line had been electrified from to Bedford, but proposals to continue electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield were not implemented.

The introduction of the High Speed Train in May 1983, following the Leicester area resignalling, brought about an increase of the ruling line speed on the fast lines from 90 mph to 110 mph.

Between 2001 and 2003, the line between Derby and Sheffield was upgraded from 100 mph to 110 mph, as part of Operation Princess, the Network Rail-funded cross-country route upgrade.

In January 2009, a new station, , was opened between 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.

Since then, 125 mph running has been introduced on extended stretches. Improved signalling, an increased number of tracks and the revival of proposals to extend electrification from Bedford to Sheffield have contributed to this. Much of this £70 million upgrade, including some line speed increases, came on-line on 9 December 2013 (see below). As of April 2025, the line has been electrified from London St Pancras to Wigston South Junction.

Network Rail route strategy for freight (2007)

Network Rail published a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007; over the coming years, a cross-country freight route will be developed enhancing the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, increasing capacity through Leicester, and remodelling 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; Network Rail started a new study in February 2008 and this was published in February 2010.

After electrification, three North Northamptonshire towns, Wellingborough, Kettering and Corby, now have an EMR Connect service into London St Pancras. North Northamptonshire is a major growth area, with over 7,400 new homes planned to be built in Wellingborough and 5,500 new homes planned for Kettering.

Highlights include:

• Work related to line speed increases, removing foot crossings and replacing with footbridges
• Capacity enhancements for freight
• Resignalling of the entire route, completed in 2016, when all signalling will be controlled by the East Midlands signalling centre in Derby
• Rebuilding Bedford and Leicester stations
• Accessibility enhancements at , , Loughborough, , Luton and by 2015
• Upgraded approach signalling (flashing yellow aspects) added at key junctions – Radlett, Harpenden and Leagrave allowing trains to traverse them at higher speeds
• Lengthening of platforms at Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Loughborough, and 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)
• Redoubling the Kettering to line between Kettering North Junction and Corby; resignalling 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.

Thameslink Programme

The Thameslink Programme has lengthened the platforms at most stations south of Bedford to 12-car capability. St Pancras, , and were already long enough, but bridges at mean it cannot expand beyond the current 8-car platform length. 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 Govia Thameslink Railway. 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 the Stanton Cross development, Wellingborough station is to be expanded.

station, between Nottingham and , was opened on 2 April 2017.

Two new stations were planned:

• between Cricklewood and Hendon, as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development in North London. It opened in December 2023.
• , between and Bedford, as part of the new town. Construction has been pushed back repeatedly; it was first expected to be built by 2015, then for 2019, the government confirmed in April 2025 that main construction would begin in concert with the nearby Universal United Kingdom Theme Park in 2026, although groundwork had already begun by late 2024.

Some new stations have been proposed:

• Clay Cross between Chesterfield and Ambergate/Alfreton.
• Irchester () between Wellingborough and Bedford.
• Ampthill between Bedford and Flitwick.

Extension of electrification

Main article: Proposed railway electrification in Great Britain

Main article: Midland Main Line railway upgrade

Unlike the West 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 have 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 and onwards to Wigston with plans to extend further to Sheffield. The section was energised on 28 July 2024 and completed testing in April 2025.

In May 2022, a briefing to contractors was released ahead of an invitation to tender for Midland Main Line Electrification project work to extend electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield. This scheme is expected to cost £1.3 billion.

In July 2025, the Department for Transport put plans for further electrification on hold indefinitely.

2021 Integrated Rail Plan

Main article: Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands

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, rather than the previous plan of an East Midlands Hub further north on the Toton sidings. This would 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.

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.

It is first recorded in print in Bradshaw's Guide of 1848. In 1849, it begins to be mentioned regularly in newspapers such as the Derby Mercury.

In 1867, the Birmingham Journal uses the term to describe the new railway running into St Pancras station.{{cite news |author= |title=The New Works of the Midland Railway Company |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000224/18671221/016/0003

In 1868, the term was used to describe the Midland Railway main route from north to south through Sheffield 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 to the lines between St Pancras and Chesterfield.

Accidents

• 26 September 1860: Bull bridge accident; bridge collapse
• 2 September 1861: Kentish Town rail accident; collision
• 2 September 1898: Wellingborough rail accident; derailment due to post trolley on track
• 24 December 1910: Hawes Junction rail crash; signalman forgot about train
• 2 September 1913: Ais Gill rail accident; collision
• 3 December 1923: Nunnery Colliery
• 13 December 1926: Orgreave Paddy Mail accident
• 1 February 2008: Barrow upon Soar rail accident.

Train operating companies

East Midlands Railway

The principal operator is East Midlands Railway (EMR), which operates four InterCity trains every hour from London St Pancras, with two trains per hour to both Nottingham and Sheffield. EMR uses Meridian trains in various carriage formations for its InterCity services.

EMR also operates a twice-hourly commuter service from London St Pancras to Corby, which is branded as EMR Connect, using Class 360 Desiro electric multiple units.

Govia Thameslink Railway

Govia Thameslink Railway provides frequent, 24-hour services south of Bedford, as part of its Thameslink route to , , Brighton and Sutton, using 8- and 12-car electric multiple units.

CrossCountry

CrossCountry runs an hourly service between Derby and Sheffield, on its route between the South West and North East of England; there are also twice-hourly services between Nottingham and Derby, continuing to and .

Northern Trains

Northern Trains runs an hourly service from Leeds to Nottingham, via and .

TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express also operates in the Sheffield area, with its to service.

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 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)

Tunnels, viaducts and major bridges

Major civil engineering structures on the Midland Main Line include the following.

Line-side monitoring equipment

Line-side train monitoring equipment includes hot axle box detectors (HABD) and wheel impact load detectors (WILD) ‘Wheelchex’, these are located as follows.

Ambergate Junction to Manchester

For marketing and franchising, this is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway

The line was once the Midland Railway's route from London St Pancras to Manchester, branching at Ambergate Junction along the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, now known as the Derwent Valley line. In days gone by, it featured named expresses such as The Palatine. Much later in the twentieth century, it carried the Midland Pullman.

This line was closed in the 1960s between and , 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 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 line (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 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 or .

The 500 yd 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 , 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 line. From , they then travelled onwards via either the Glasgow and South Western or Waverley Route. In the past, the line had named expresses, such as the Thames–Clyde Express and The Waverley.

The route takes the following route:

• **** along the Airedale line
  • Apperley Junction for the Wharfedale line
• ****: with the triangular junction for the branch line to ****

• ---

  • for the Worth Valley Branch junction to .

• ---

Settle Junction for the line to Morecambe

• • for the junction for Ingleton and an end-on junction via Sedbergh to Low Gill on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) West Coast Main Line

At this point, the line divided at a triangular junction for the two lines:

• , including a station for Middleton Road Heysham

Former stations

As with most railway lines in Britain, the route used to serve far more stations than it currently does. Places that the current main line used to serve include:

London to Leicester:

• Camden Road
• Welsh Harp
• Napsbury
• Chiltern Green
• Ampthill
• Oakley
• Sharnbrook
• Glendon and Rushton
• Desborough
• East Langton
• Kibworth
• Great Glen
• Wigston Magna.

Leicester to Trent Junction:

• Leicester Humberstone Road
• Cossington Gate
• Hathern
• Kegworth
• Trent.

Derwent Valley:

• Breaston (later Sawley – see Long Eaton)
• Draycott
• Borrowash
• Derby Nottingham Road
• Wingfield
• Stretton
• Clay Cross.

Erewash Valley:

• Long Eaton (Original Midland Counties Railway station, not the present one)
• Stapleford and Sandiacre
• Stanton Gate
• Trowell
• Ilkeston Junction and Cossall – reopened as Ilkeston
• Shipley Gate
• Codnor Park and Ironville
• Pye Bridge
• Westhouses and Blackwell
• Doe Hill.

Chesterfield to Leeds:

• Staveley
• Eckington and Renishaw
• Killamarsh West
• Beighton
• Woodhouse Mill
• Treeton
• Sheepbridge
• Unstone
• Beauchief
• Millhouses
• Heeley
• Attercliffe Road
• Brightside
• Holmes
• Rotherham Masborough
• Parkgate and Rawmarsh
• Kilnhurst
• Swinton West (reopened Swinton).

The following, on the original North Midland Railway line:

• Wath North
• Darfield
• Cudworth
• Royston and Notton
• Oakenshaw (originally for Wakefield)
• Methley North.

Gallery

File:midland-main-line-st-albans.jpg|Looking south along the Midland Main Line at File:Ricture 053.jpg|The Erewash Valley Line, part of the Midland Main Line, seen here at Stapleford File:British Rail Class 43 at Chesterfield.jpg|A High Speed Train near Chesterfield File:Overview of Leeds City railway station 04.jpg|Leeds station, a former key reversal point on the Midland Main Line on the route north

Notes

References

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