East Midlands Parkway railway station


East Midlands Parkway railway station is located just north of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, in Nottinghamshire, England; Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station lies next to the railway. It is a stop on the Midland Main Line and is the closest station to East Midlands Airport, some away. It provides park and ride facilities for passengers on the routes from to and.

Description

The station is a stop on the Midland Main Line, which runs from to Nottingham and, down the line from the London terminus. Just north of the station is Trent Junction, where the lines to Nottingham and Sheffield diverge. There are four platforms: two serving the western fast lines and two serving the eastern slow lines.
The station lies in south-west Nottinghamshire, close to the boundaries with Leicestershire and Derbyshire, between the stations at, and.

History

Building work commenced on the new £25.5million station on 19 December 2007. It was due to be completed by 14 December 2008, but did not finally open until 26 January 2009.
The train operating company Midland Mainline was, until October 2006, responsible for the project, which remained in the planning stages for several years for the want of a small piece of land needed for the project. Responsibility was then transferred to Network Rail which anticipated expenditure of £5million in 2006/07 and £8million in 2007/08.
In its first year of operation, the station was used by over 250,000passengers.

Controversy

People in nearby towns, including Loughborough, voiced their concerns that the opening of the station could lead to the reduction in the number of trains stopping there; this was denied by former operator Midland Mainline. Another concern was the possible withdrawal of the existing bus service from to East Midlands Airport. A service from Loughborough to the airport is still running; however, since 25 April 2010, it has ceased to serve Loughborough station. As a result, there are no longer any direct late-night or early-morning bus services between the station and the town centre, with only a limited service operating on Sundays.

First year

To mark the first year of operation of the station, East Midlands Trains offered unlimited travel from the station for the day on Saturday 30 January 2010, under the promotional Red Dot Day banner. The 850 space car park was full for the first time since the station opened and 2,787 passengers travelled. The station saw 182,412journeys in its first full year of operation.

Criticism

Fears were raised by various bodies, including East Midlands Airport, about the service pattern proposed for the new station in 2008.
Donington Park motor racing circuit is nearby and its then-owners expressed their desire for spectators to use the station or coach services when travelling to the circuit. The owners were also in support of any future light rail transport to East Midlands Airport itself.
The station has been criticised as being poorly located. In 2011-12, East Midlands Parkway attracted just over one third of the projected annual passengers.

Facilities

East Midlands Parkway is a staffed station with four platforms and a ticket office, which is open from the first to the last train that calls each day. Other facilities include:
When it was opened in 2009, East Midlands Parkway was one of the greenest stations in the United Kingdom. The station was built using locally-sourced and recycled materials; it uses a ground-source heating system.

Services

East Midlands Railway operates all services that stop at East Midlands Parkway. The typical off-peak service pattern is as follows:
  • Hourly service to, via and
  • Hourly service to, via.
  • Hourly fast service to, via and
  • Hourly semi-fast service to London St Pancras, via Loughborough, Leicester, and.
  • Hourly local service to Nottingham
  • Hourly local service to Leicester, via Loughborough and.

Onward connections

When it opened, there was a little-used shuttle bus from the station to the airport, but this ceased not long afterwards. An hourly minibus service was reintroduced in 2015 but later withdrawn. The only public transport to the station now is the Z4 on demand service, operated by Kinchbus on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council.
Road access is via the A453, which provides a link to the nearby M1 motorway.

Electrification and future

The Midland Main Line is not electrified north of ; therefore, all services are operated by diesel trains. This was set to change by 2019, when a scheme to electrify the remainder of the line had been due to be completed. This, along with increased line speeds, would have meant that the station would have been under 80minutes from the capital. The electrification scheme was cancelled in 2017.
In November 2021, the Government announced the abandonment of most of the eastern leg High Speed 2 and the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme under the Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands. As part of this, the earlier proposal for the HS2 East Midlands Hub station on the Toton sidings site further north was shelved and instead the eastern leg of HS2 would connect to the Midland Line at a junction to the south of East Midlands Parkway. This would allow HS2 services to reach Derby and Nottingham directly, the absence of which was a criticism of the previous plan. The IRP also confirmed the rest of the Midland Line would be electrified, reversing a previous decision to cancel electrification.
In October 2023, it was announced that the Eastern Leg of HS2 was cancelled, along with the Birmingham to Manchester line. It will therefore not reach East Midlands Parkway. However the Midlands Rail Hub will go ahead; this will increase the number of trains from the East Midlands to Birmingham by routing more trains to.