Midland Main Line

Midland Main Line
East Midlands Railway Class 222 passing Cossington, in 2024
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater London East of England East Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber
Termini	London St Pancras Sheffield or Nottingham
Stations	37
Service
Type	Intercity, commuter rail, regional rail and heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	East Midlands Railway CrossCountry Thameslink TransPennine Express Northern Trains GB Railfreight Freightliner DB Cargo Direct Rail Services
Depot(s)	Cricklewood Derby Etches Park Nottingham Eastcroft Bedford Cauldwell Walk depot Toton Sheffield Station Depot Neville Hill
Rolling stock	Class 150 Sprinter Class 156 Super Sprinter Class 158 Express Sprinter Class 170 Turbostar Class 185 Desiro Class 220 Voyager Class 221 Super Voyager Class 222 Meridian Class 360 Desiro Class 700 Desiro City
History
Opened	Stages between 1830s–1860s
Technical
Number of tracks	2–4
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W6–W8,[1] planned upgrade to W12[2]
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz AC OHLE (London St Pancras to Wigston)
Operating speed	Maximum 125 mph (201 km/h)
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e Midland Main Line
Legend
West Coast Main Line to Glasgow Carlisle Cumbrian Coast line to Barrow-in-Furness West Coast Main Line to Preston Tyne Valley line to Newcastle Settle–Carlisle line Leeds Wakefield line Hallam line Wakefield Westgate Hallam line to Barnsley Wakefield Kirkgate Sandal and Agbrigg Pontefract line to Goole Wakefield line Sandal and Walton Hare Park & Crofton Royston–Savile Town to Dewsbury Dearne Valley Railway Great Central Railway to Barnsley Nostell Fitzwilliam Royston and Notton Hemsworth Hull & Barnsley Railway to Hull Hull & Barnsley Railway to Monk Bretton works Dearne Valley line to Pontefract Baghill Cudworth Wakefield line to Doncaster Stairfoot & Cudworth line to Sheffield Moorthorpe Houghton Colliery Thurnscoe Cat Hill Tunnel Goldthorpe Darfield Frickley Wath North Bolton-upon-Dearne Great Central Railway to Barnsley Dearne Valley Railway to Edlington Swinton Junction Wakefield line Dearne Valley line Swinton–Doncaster line to Mexborough Swinton Swinton Central Kilnhurst West Kilnhurst Central Thrybergh Junction Parkgate and Rawmarsh Parkgate and Aldwarke Rotherham Road Rotherham Central Rotherham Masborough Rotherham Westgate Rail recycling Midland Railway Great Central Railway Wakefield line Dearne Valley line Holmes Canklow shed M1 motorway Tinsley Viaduct M1 motorway Tinsley Viaduct Blackburn Valley line to Barnsley Hallam and Penistone lines to Barnsley Meadowhall Tinsley Tinsley Marshalling Yard Brightside Broughton Lane Sheffield & Rotherham Railway Sheffield Wicker Attercliffe Road Woodhead line (GCML) to Stocksbridge Sheffield Victoria Treeton River Don Darnall Sheffield Orgreave colliery Heeley Woodhouse Millhouses shed Woodhouse Mill Millhouses and Ecclesall Beauchief Beighton Sheffield–Lincoln line to Retford Dore & Totley Hope Valley line to Manchester Piccadilly Killamarsh Central Killamarsh West Bradway Tunnel Eckington and Renishaw Dronfield Doe Lea branch line to Bolsover Unstone Barrow Hill Sheepbridge Whittington Staveley Central Chesterfield Central Chesterfield Chesterfield Loop Great Central Main Line Chesterfield Market Place LD&ECR to Lincoln Clay Cross Clay Cross Tunnel Erewash Valley line Stretton Doe Hill Ashover Light Railway to Ashover Butts Westhouses and Blackwell Wingfield Alfreton Alfreton tunnels Midland Railway –Butterley Robin Hood Line to Worksop Derwent Valley line to Matlock Pye Bridge Ambergate Ambergate–Pye Bridge line Belper Codnor Park and Ironville Milford Tunnel Langley Mill Duffield Shipley Gate GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension Bennerley Viaduct Ilkeston Town Ilkeston Trowell Great Central Main Line Stanton Gate Nottingham Victoria Radford N'ham–Grantham & N'ham–Lincoln lines Derby Nottingham Crewe–Derby line & Cross Country Route Nottingham Arkwright Street Stapleford and Sandiacre Beeston Spondon Ruddington Draycott and Breaston Great Central Railway Borrowash Toton TMD Sawley Attenborough 1968– Long Eaton Long Eaton –1967 Erewash Valley line Attenborough Junction Castle Donington line Trent River Trent Trent Viaducts Redhill Tunnels East Midlands Parkway Kegworth Hathern Loughborough Great Central Railway Loughborough Central Barrow-upon-Soar Great Central Railway Sileby Syston Junction B'ham–P'boro line to Peterborough Syston Leicester North Humberstone Road Leicester Central Leicester Leicester to Burton line to Burton-on-Trent Great Central Main Line to Rugby Central B'ham–P'boro line to Birmingham New Street Mid. Counties Rly to Rugby no electrification 25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead Wigston Magna Great Glen Kibworth East Langton Rugby & Stamford Rly to Stamford Market Harborough Rugby & Stamford Rly to Rugby N'hampton–M. Harb. line to N'hampton Bridge St Desborough Glendon and Rushton Oakham–Kettering line to Corby Kettering Loddington & Cransley branch to Loddington Kettering–H'don line to Huntingdon Isham and Burton Latimer Finedon Neilsons sidings Wellingborough N'hampton–P'boro line to N'hampton Bridge St N'hampton–P'boro line to Peterborough East River Nene Higham Ferrers branch to Rushden Irchester Sharnbrook Tunnel (freight only) Sharnbrook Oakley Bedford–N'hampton line to N'hampton St. John's St Bedford Bedford Sidings Bedford St Johns Marston Vale line to Bletchley Varsity Line to Cambridge proposed Wixams Bedford–Hitchin line to Hitchin Ampthill Tunnel Ampthill Flitwick Harlington Leagrave Dunstable Branch Lines to Dunstable Town Luton Luton Bute Street Luton Airport Parkway Luton Hoo Chiltern Green Nickey Line to Boxmoor Dunstable Branch Lines to Welwyn North Harpenden St Albans Abbey St Albans City St Albans (London Road) Hatfield–St Albans line to Hatfield Park Street Napsbury Abbey line to Watford Junction M25 motorway Radlett Elstree & Borehamwood Elstree Tunnel M1 motorway Hertfordshire Greater London Mill Hill Broadway Hendon Welsh Harp Brent Cross West Cricklewood Depot and sidings Dudding Hill Line to Acton Central North London Line to Richmond Cricklewood West Hampstead West Hampstead Thameslink Finchley Road Belsize Tunnel Lismore Circus Tunnel Hampstead Tunnel Haverstock Hill Gospel Oak Gospel Oak–Barking line to Barking Riverside Kentish Town Camden Road East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Waverley Camden Road Tunnel Copenhagen Tunnel Copenhagen Junction North London Line to Stratford High Speed 1 to the Channel Tunnel Belle Isle Junction Gasworks Tunnel Canal Tunnels 2018– Regent's Canal St Pancras London King's Cross Circle, H&C & Met. lines to Euston Square King's Cross St Pancras King's Cross King's Cross Thameslink Circle, H&C & Met. lines to Farringdon Widened Lines to Farringdon

v t e Midland Railway
Legend
"New Road" (1870)
Masborough Holmes Wincobank Brightside Attercliffe Road Sheffield Midland Heeley Millhouses and Ecclesall Beauchief Dore & Totley Bradway Tunnel Dronfield Unstone Broomhouse Tunnel Sheepbridge Tapton Junction

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]

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.

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]

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]

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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.

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.

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 are underway. Much of this £70 million upgrade, including some line-speed increases, came online on 9 December 2013 (see below).^[18]

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.

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]

Highlights include:^[28]

• 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]
• Rebuilding Bedford and Leicester^[30]
• Accessibility enhancements at Elstree & Borehamwood, Harpenden, Loughborough, Long Eaton, Luton, and Wellingborough by 2015^{[31][needs update]}
• 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]

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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.

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]

Ilkeston between Nottingham and Langley Mill was opened on 2 April 2017.^[34]

Two new stations were planned:

• Brent Cross West between Cricklewood and Hendon as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development in North London. It opened in December 2023. ^[35]
• Wixams between Flitwick and Bedford as part of the new town just outside Bedford. Construction has been pushed back repeatedly: first expected to be built by 2015,^[36] then for 2019,^[37] the government confirmed in April 2025 that main construction would begin in concert with the nearby Universal Studios Great Britain Theme Park in 2026,^[38] although groundwork had already begun by late 2024.

Some new stations have been proposed:

• Clay Cross between Chesterfield and Ambergate/Alferton.^[39]
• Irchester (Rushden Parkway) between Wellingborough and Bedford.^[40]
• Ampthill between Bedford and Flitwick.^[41]

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 and onwards to Wigston with plans to extend further to Sheffield.