Midland Main Line
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Principal stations (from south to north)
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- This article is about the Midland Main Line railway route. For the train operating company, see Midland Mainline.
The line links London (St Pancras) to Sheffield (Midland station) in northern England and connects other important population centres including Luton, Bedford, Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Leicester, Loughborough, Long Eaton, Derby, Beeston, Nottingham and Chesterfield. There are plans to build a station on the line to serve Nottingham East Midlands Airport, to be called East Midlands Parkway.
Express passenger services on the line are operated by the Midland Mainline train operating company. The section between St Pancras and Bedford is electrified and is also used by Thameslink commuter trains (operated by First Capital Connect). Central Trains also operates regional and local services between Nottingham and Leicester / Derby / Sheffield.
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 and its subsidiary the Stonebridge Railway from Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire, on the London and Birmingham Railway, to Derby. This section opened on 12 August, 1839. This is now 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, was extended from Leicester (its previous Campbell Street Station being replaced by the current London Road Station) to a temporary station on the northern outskirts of Rugby. 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 former route via Hampton-in-Arden. Consequently the Stonebridge Railway lost all importance, was soon singled, and closed in 1917 as a wartime economy measure and to release track material for other use. Thus this became the first main line in Britain to close. Its parent company, the Birmingham and Derby Junction, survived, reached Birmingham Lawley Street Station in 1842, and is now part of the Cross-Country InterCity route from Birmingham to the North-East.
When these three companies merged to form the Midland Railway on 10 May 1844, 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. The line avoids Northampton, a major 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.
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 is the Erewash Valley Line, which carries services from Chesterfield and the north to Nottingham and the south.
Route
The cities, towns and villages served by the MML are listed below. Those in bold are served by fast InterCity services.
London to Trent Junction
- London St Pancras
- Kentish Town
- West Hampstead
- Cricklewood
- Hendon
- Mill Hill Broadway
- Elstree & Borehamwood
- Radlett
- St. Albans
- Harpenden
- London Luton Airport
- Luton Town
- Leagrave
- Harlington
- Flitwick
- Bedford
- Kettering North Junction: formerly services to Corby and Melton Mowbray, from which both Leicester and Nottingham could be reached via an alternative route
Trent Junction via Derby
- Rejoins with Nottingham line.
Trent Junction via Erewash Valley Line
Trent Junction via Nottingham
- trains often reverse to join the Erewash Valley Line
Continued
A Main Line to Manchester
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 LMS days it featured named expresses such as the Palatine and the Peaks.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. The line between Matlock and Rowsley is in the hands of the Peak Rail preservation group.
The Settle-Carlisle and the West Ridings Extension
This is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Settle-Carlisle Railway. World War I prevented the Midland 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 Forster Square) station. The 500yd gap between the stations at Bradford continues to exist today - 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 continues onwards from Carlisle via either the Glasgow and South Western or Waverley routes. Heysham was the port for the Midland's Irish traffic.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
- East Langton
- Kibworth
- Great Glen
- Wigston
- Leicester Humberstone Road
- Syston (reopened)
- Sileby (reopened)
- Barrow (reopened)
- Hathern
- Kegworth
- Trent
- Derby Nottingham Road
- Clay Cross
- Sheepbridge
- Unstone
- Beauchief
- Millhouses
- Heeley
- Attercliffe Road
- Brightside
- Holmes
- Rotherham Masborough
- Rawmarsh and Parkgate
- Kilnhurst
- Swinton West (reopened Swinton)
| Main line railways in Great Britain:''' | |
|---|---|
| High-speed main lines: | Channel Tunnel Rail Link |
| Cross-Country Route East Coast Main Line Great Eastern Main Line Great Western Main Line Midland Main Line West Coast Main Line | |
| Railway lines in Central England:''' | |
|---|---|
| Main lines: | Cross Country Route (MR)>Cross-Country Route Midland Main Line West Coast Main Line Birmingham-Peterborough via Leicester Line Birmingham-Worcester via Bromsgrove Line Birmingham-Worcester via Kidderminster Line Cherwell Valley Line Chiltern Main Line London-Aylesbury Line Welsh Marches Line Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury Line |
| Commuter lines: | Birmingham-Rugeley "Chase" Line Birmingham-Stratford Line Birmingham-Walsall Line Coventry-Nuneaton Line Cross-City Line Leicester-Loughborough "Ivanhoe" Line Robin Hood Line Stourbridge Junction-Stourbridge Town Line Walsall-Wolverhampton Line |
| Rural lines: | Cotswold Line Derwent Valley Line Leamington to Stratford Line>Leamington-Stratford Line Marston Vale Line Nottingham-Lincoln Line Nottingham to Grantham Line Oxford-Bicester Line Princes Risborough-Aylesbury Line Shrewsbury-Chester Line Crewe-Derby Line |
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