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Midland Main Line

For the former train operating company, see Midland Mainline.
Midland Main Line
Legend
 Leeds
Wakefield Westgate
East Coast Main Line
Barnsley
River Dearne, Doncaster
East Coast Main Line
- to Huddersfield
Cudworth
- from Sheffield
- from Grimethorpe
- to Houghton Colliery
Darfield
Wath North
Dearne Valley Line, Wakefield Line, Sheffield-Hull,
Swinton
Kilnhurst West
Parkgate and Rawmarsh
Rotherham Masborough
M1 motorway, Canklow Shed
Hallam Line, Penistone Line
Meadowhall
Wincobank and Meadowhall station
- to Tinsley Marshalling Yard
Brightside, Treeton
Sheffield & Rotherham Railway to Sheffield Wicker
Attercliffe Road, Woodhouse Mill
River Don
Sheffield-Lincoln Line
Sheffield Midland
Porter Brook, Beighton
Heeley
Millhouses Shed, Killamarsh
Millhouses, Eckington
Beauchief
Dore
Dore junction, Hope Valley Line to Manchester Picc.
Bradway Tunnel
Dronfield, to Bolsover
Unstone, Barrow Hill
Sheepbridge, Whittington
Derwent Valley Line to Matlock and Peak Rail
Ambergate, Chesterfield Robin Hood Line
Alfreton
Belper
Langley Mill
Robin Hood Line
Nottingham to Grantham, to Lincoln
126 Derby, Beeston
Toton TMD, Attenborough
Erewash Valley Line, Attenborough Junction
Long Eaton
Sinfin, Sinfin branch line
Castle Donnington Line
Crewe to Derby Line, Trent Junction
Burton upon Trent River Trent
Birmingham+Derby Junc. Rly., Cross Country
East Midlands Parkway (Under construction)
Coalville Depot (closed), Loughborough
Great Central Railway North
Syston Junction, Old Dalby test track
Leicester and Swannington, Birmingham to Peterborough
Leicester
Birmingham to Peterborough Line
Market Harborough, Corby
Kettering
Wellingborough
Bedford
Marston Vale Line to Bletchley
Bedford St Johns
Flitwick
Harlington
Leagrave
- to Dunstable
Luton
Luton Airport Parkway
Chiltern Green
Harpenden
St Albans
Radlett
Elstree & Borehamwood
Mill Hill Broadway
Hendon
Dudding Hill Line
Cricklewood
West Hampstead Thameslink
Gospel Oak to Barking Line
Kentish Town
Thameslink cross-London route
North London Line
North London Line, ECML, HS1
Regent's Canal
London St. Pancras


The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in the United Kingdom, part of the British railway system.

The 'Modern' line links London St. Pancras International to Sheffield Midland station in northern England via Luton, Bedford, Kettering, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Chesterfield.

Historically the line has extended further north to Manchester in the north west, Leeds in the north east and trains through to both Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. The straighter east coast main line initially saw the demise of midland trains to Leeds and ultimately Scotland due to the longer journey times. Later, electrification of the west coast mainline and the Beeching cuts, saw Manchester trains withdrawn from the midland and transferred to the west coast.

Network Rail engineers started work to build a new station, East Midlands Parkway between Loughborough and Trent Junction, to serve East Midlands Airport in December 2007.

Express passenger services on the line are operated by the East Midlands Mainline train operating company (toc). The section between St Pancras and Bedford is electrified and forms the northern half of the Thameslink suburban service (operated by First Capital Connect), which provides a through service from Bedford to Brighton.

The northern part of the route between Derby and Sheffield is shared with CrossCountry, whilst the route between Sheffield and Leeds is shared with, Northern, Transpenine Express and National Express East Coast. East Midlands Connect also operates regional and local services between Nottingham and Leicester / Derby / Sheffield.

Contents

History

The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1860s, as three lines which met at the Tri Junct Station in Derby.

First to arrive was the line built by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway from Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire (on the London and Birmingham Railway) to Derby, which opened on the 12 August 1839[1]. This section is now known as the Cross-Country Route through Birmingham to Bristol.

This was followed on 1 July 1840 by the North Midland Railway, which ran from Derby to Leeds Hunslet Lane Station via Chesterfield, Swinton, Masborough, near Rotherham (from where the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway ran a branch to Sheffield Wicker Station), and Normanton. This avoided Sheffield, Barnsley, and Wakefield in order to reduce gradients.

On the same day the Midland Counties Railway, which ran from Derby and Nottingham to Leicester Campbell Street, was extended from Leicester to a temporary station on the northern outskirts of Rugby[2]. A few months later, the Rugby viaduct was finished and the Midland Counties Railway reached the London and Birmingham's Rugby Station. This cut 11 miles off the B&DJR route via Hampton-in-Arden.

When these three companies merged to form the Midland Railway on 10 May 1844[3], the Midland did not have its own route to London, and relied upon a junction at Rugby with the London and Birmingham's line (which became part of the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1846) to London Euston for access to the capital.

By the 1850s the junction at Rugby had become severely congested, and so the Midland Railway constructed a route from Leicester to Hitchin on the Great Northern Railway, via Bedford[4]. The line avoids Northampton, a medium town south of Leicester, instead going via Kettering and Wellingborough in the east of Northamptonshire. This line met with similar problems at Hitchin as the former alignment had at Rugby, so in 1868 a line was opened from Bedford via Luton to London St Pancras[5].

The final stretch of what is considered to be the modern Midland Main Line was a short cut-off from Chesterfield through Sheffield, which opened in 1870.

Also part of the line as defined by Network Rail,[6] is the Erewash Valley Line, Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line, Oakham to Kettering Line and sections of the Nottingham to Lincoln Line (as far east as Newark) and Birmingham to Peterborough Line (between Nuneaton and Oakham).

Partly to appease the concerns and opposition of landowners along the route, in places some of it was built to avoid large estates and rural towns, and to reduce construction costs the railways followed natural contours, resulting in many curves and bends. This has also resulted in the MML passing through some of the hillier areas of the British mainland, such as Sharnbrook (where there is a 1 in 119 gradient from the south taking the line to 340 feet above sea level). This has left a legacy of lower maximum speeds on the line compared to the other main lines. The solution to similar problems on the West Coast Main Line has been the adoption of tilting trains, Class 390 Pendolino trains introduced by Virgin in 2003.

By 1982, the line had undergone electrification from Moorgate as far north as Bedford. The introduction of the High Speed Train HST during the 1980s brought about an increase of the ruling linespeed on the fast lines from 90mph to 110mph.

Between 2001 and 2003 the section of the Midland Main Line between Derby and Sheffield was upgraded from 100mph to 110mph as part of Operation Princess, the Virgin Cross Country route upgrade.

Many plans have been drawn up only later to be dropped in a bid to improve speed and journey times, although more recently with investment easier to come by the line looks set to benefit from 125mph running on extended stretches, improved signalling, increased number of tracks and possible electrification further north[citation needed].

Operators

The principal operator is East Midlands Trains, which replaced Midland Mainline on 11 November 2007. Other operators include:

Route definition and description

The cities, towns and villages served by the MML are listed below. Those in bold are served by fast InterCity services. Be aware this section details the original line 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 group 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 Trent Junction

    • At Trent South Junction, the line splits into three, with lines to Derby, Nottingham and Erewash Valley

Trent Junction to Clay Cross Junction via Derby

Ambergate Junction to Manchester

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 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.

Trent Junction to Clay Cross Junction via Erewash Valley Line

Trent Junction to Nottingham

Clay Cross Junction to Leeds

Leeds to Carlisle

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 (avoiding reversal at Leeds) to join the Settle and Carlisle. The first part of the Midlands 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 yard gap between the stations at Bradford continues to exist - 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 Midlands proposed extension.

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 town. Midland trains to Scotland continued onwards from Carlisle 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.

Former stations

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 mainline used to serve include

  • Long Eaton (Original Midland Counties Railway station not the present one)
  • Stapleford and Sandiacre
  • Stanton Gate
  • Trowell
  • Ilkeston and Cossal
  • Shipley Gate
  • Codnor Park and Ironville
  • Pye Bridge
  • Westhouses and Blackwell
  • Doe Hill
  • Chesterfield to Leeds
  • Staveley
  • Eckington
  • Killamarsh
  • Beighton

The following on the original North Midland Railway line

  • Wath
  • Darfield
  • Royston and Notton
  • Oakenshaw (originally for Wakefield)
  • Normanton
  • Methley
  • Woodlesford

Future

Traffic levels on the Midland Main Line are rising faster than national average, with continued increases predicted. The now defunct Strategic Rail Authority produced a Route Utilisation Strategy for the Midland Main Line in 2005 to propose ways of meeting this demand; Network Rail plan to start work on a new study in 2008.

Network Rail's Plans

The Midland Main line has for many years been thought of as a 'Cinderella' line and, with the increasing capacity constraints on other lines, it is inevitable that this route will be upgraded in the not-too-distant future. Plans for the line include:

  • Re-signalling of the entire route is expected to be complete by 2016 when all signalling will be controlled by the new East Midlands Signalling centre currently being built at Derby.
  • Straightening the line at Market Harborough.
  • Additional relief lines around Leicester.
  • Rebuilding stations at Nottingham, Derby, Loughborough, Leicester, Wellingborough and Luton.
  • Re-newing major junctions at Trent and Clay Cross.
  • Additional relief lines around Corby.
  • New bi-directional line between Kettering and Wellingborough.
  • Upgraded signalling on approaches to junctions allowing trains to travel at higher speeds.
  • Thameslink Programme.

Route Utilisation Strategy

Thameslink Programme

  • Thameslink Programme [7] [8]

2007 Business Plan

Network Rail's 2007 business plan for the Midland Main Line [9] talks for the first time in recent years of line speed increases - bringing journey times to Sheffield to under two hours, meaning that journey times would become more competitive to other north-south routes. Highlights include:

  • Kettering south - Harowden Junction (Wellingborough) third bi-directional slow line
  • Syston - Trent south linespeed increases
  • Syston Junction - Wigston Junction slow line
  • Erewash Valley line resignalling
  • Trent Junction resignalling
  • Bedford & Nottingham stations remodelling
  • Flashing yellow signal aspects added at key junctions - Radlett, Harpenden and Leagrave
  • Chesterfield new Platform

Freight utilisation Strategy

Network Rail have recently released their freight utilisation strategy [10], over the coming years a cross country freight route will be developed enhancing the Birmingham to Peterborough Line and the railway through Leicester, with additional slow lines and platforms at Leicester.

 •  • 
Main line railways in Great Britain:
High-speed main lines:
'Classic' main lines:
 •  • 
Railway lines in Central England
InterCity lines
Cross Country Route · Midland Main Line · West Coast Main Line
Main lines
Commuter lines
Rural lines
Freight and disused lines
Heritage
v • d • e
Railway lines in Northern England:
InterCity lines:
Main lines:
Commuter lines: