East Midlands Parkway

On Monday, 22nd April 1996, Birmingham-based coach operator National Express was formally awarded the Midland Mainline franchise. This encompassed operating services on the former British Rail route from St Pancras to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and Sheffield. The franchise was set to run for ten years, with an annual subsidy of £16.5 million, the latter of which was planned to cease by the year 2000. By the end of the franchise term, it was expected that National Express would be paying a £10 million yearly premium to the Government (ref: The Birmingham Post, 23rd April 1996). As part of their franchise commitment, National Express announced the introduction of a new fleet of diesel trains to increase service frequency, refurbishment of the existing InterCity 125 fleet, a £1 million investment in station improvements, and the opening of a new station north of Loughborough by the name of East Midlands Parkway (ref: The Railway Magazine, June 1996).

At the time of the Midland Mainline franchise award, it was stated that the rationale behind developing an East Midlands Parkway station was to attract traffic away from the M1 motorway and provide a coach link to East Midlands Airport. It was reported that a number of sites were being evaluated for the station’s location and that no particular timescale was being worked to (ref: Loughborough Echo, 26th April 1996). National Express had previously acquired East Midlands Airport in 1993 from its previous owners — Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire County Councils, and Nottingham City Council — as part of a £27.1 million deal (ref: Aberdeen Press and Journal, 22nd July 1993).

In February 1997, it was reported that National Express had narrowed down the list of possible sites for the station between Nottingham and Loughborough from five to two. Due to commercial sensitivity, National Express did not reveal the preferred sites, but it was suspected that one of these was near Ratcliffe-on-Sour, close to Junction 24 of the M1, and the second upon the main A453 road to Nottingham (ref: Nottingham Evening Post, 21st February 1997). It was envisaged that the station would require three acres of land and comprise a 750-space car park (ref: Loughborough Echo, 9th May 1997), and the estimated cost of the scheme was £10 million (ref: Nottingham Evening Post, 16th June 1997).

In March 1998, it was reported that Railtrack and Midland Mainline were working together to finalise plans for an East Midlands Parkway station in-between Loughborough and Long Eaton. The estimated cost of the proposed station had risen to £15 million, a fifteen minute coach journey would link the site with East Midlands Airport, and at the time it was thought that the scheme could be realised by the year 2000 (ref: Derby Evening Telegraph, 26th March 1998).

On 25th March 1999, Railtrack announced that £5 million had been set aside for the development of East Midlands Parkway station, although the project was still in the feasibility study stage. The total cost of the scheme was back to £10 million and National Express was expected to fund the remaining half. Should the station not go ahead, Railtrack stated that the allocated £5 million would be spent elsewhere (ref: Nottingham Evening Post, 25th March 1999). By June 1999, the estimated cost had increased to £13 million.

On 31st May 2000, Midland Mainline applied for planning permission for East Midlands Parkway. The site selected was adjacent to Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, close to Junction 24 of the M1 motorway (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, August 2000). The estimated cost of the project by that time was £17 million (ref: The Railway Magazine, October 2000) and it was hoped that the station would be open by summer 2000 (ref: The Railway Magazine, May 2001).

The timeline for opening East Midlands Parkway was pushed back to 2002; however, by the end of that year, construction work had still not started as a result of lengthy negotiations for purchasing the required land (ref: The Railway Magazine, December 2002). The sticking point was a seven-metre-wide strip of land belonging to Powergen, the company of which at that time operated the adjacent Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Powergen raised concerns about security of the power station during East Midlands Parkway’s construction phase and was therefore reluctant to sell the land required by the project. This prompted Midland Mainline to submit a compulsory purchase order to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister under the terms of the Transport and Works Act (ref: The Railway Magazine, May 2003).

On 21st June 2007, Stagecoach Group PLC was awarded the East Midlands rail franchise, this of which the company began operating on 11th November of the same year (ref: Office of Fair Trading, February 2008). East Midlands was the product of merging the original Midland Mainline operation with part of the former Central Trains franchise; addition of the latter extended the franchise’s scope to Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Lancashire. One of Stagecoach’s franchise commitments was the introduction of a half hourly service between London and an East Midlands Parkway station (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 2007), which had not got off the drawing board after more than a decade of planning.

During April 2008, the first signs of infrastructure work in connection with the new station were made on two consecutive weekends. This involved the realignment of "up" and "down" slow lines in the shadow of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, on the four-track section of the Midland Main Line in-between Loughborough and Trent Junction, to accommodate the station (ref: Branch Line News No. 1065, Branch Line Society, 17th May 2008). The cost of the project by this time was £25.5 million: this was mostly funded by Network Rail; £895,000 was provided by the East Midlands Development Agency; an additional sum was given by East Midlands Trains to fund 350 additional car parking spaces on top of the original specification of 500. The station’s design was the work of White Young Green, and the contract for construction was awarded to Birse (ref: Network Rail Media Centre, 18th December 2007).

East Midlands Parkway was opened with ceremony on Monday, 26th January 2009. (ref: Network Rail Media Centre, 26th January 2009). The station was built with a series of environmentally-friendly features, such as under-floor heating, locally-sourced and recycled materials, low-energy lighting, and harvested rainwater (ref: The Railway Magazine, March 2009). Four platforms were constructed 118-miles 20-chains from St Pancras: two on the "slow" lines, 122-metres-long, and a pair on the "fast" lines, more than double the length of the former at 258-metres (ref: Branch Line News No. 1081, Branch Line Society, 10th January 2009). A fully-enclosed footbridge, 43-metres-long and equipped with lifts, links all platforms, the latter of which are numbered 1 to 4 west to east. The main station building is situated on the western side of the tracks, adjacent to platform 1: measuring approximately 35-metres long by 24-metres wide, a spacious booking hall exists under a lofty, irregular hipped roof that rises above the height of the footbridge.

From the outset, morning peak-time London-bound departures from East Midlands Parkway were at 07:01, 07:25, 07:34, 08:01, 08:32, and 08:38. Corresponding evening peak time departures for the station from St Pancras were at 16:15, 16:25, 17:15, 17:30, 17:45, and 18:15 (ref: Branch Line News No. 1084, Branch Line Society, 21st February 2009). Off-peak departures amounted to at least two trains per hour in either direction, although due to factors outside of East Midlands Trains’ control, these were irregularly timed so they were only eleven minutes apart (ref: The Railway Magazine, March 2009).

4th July 2009

Hastings DEMU No. 1001 is seen passing East Midlands Parkway on the "slow" lines, southbound, on the return working of the "Midland Forester", which was a round trip excursion from Hastings to Nottingham. The short length of the "slow" platforms compared to those serving the "fast" lines is evident in this northward view. © David Glasspool Collection

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