Loughborough railway station

This article is about the National Rail station in Loughborough, Leicestershire. For the station in South London, see Loughborough Junction railway station. For the heritage station on the Great Central Railway, see Loughborough Central railway station.

Loughborough Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	Borough of Charnwood
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	LBO
History
Opened	1872

Loughborough railway station is a Grade II listed railway station which serves the town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, England. Situated on the Midland Main Line, 12+1⁄2 miles (20.1 kilometres) north of Leicester, the station lies to the north-east of the town centre.

More than 1.3 million people entered and left the station in the twelve months to March 2010, an increase of nearly two hundred thousand in five years. This makes it the 322nd most-used Network Rail station. In addition, it was estimated that more than 7,397 people used the station to change trains.

The railway through Leicestershire is not electrified therefore all services are operated by diesel trains. This is set to change by 2023 when a scheme to electrify the remainder of the Midland Main Line is to be completed, this along with faster line speeds, means the town will be a little over 60 minutes from London.

History

The original station (opened in 1840 by the Midland Counties Railway, which was shortly to join the North Midland Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway to form the Midland Railway) was sited a little further south.

The present station was built in 1872. The ironwork was constructed by Mr. Richards of Leicester, and the stone portion by Mr. Cox of Leicester. The track was quadrupled and has retained much of its characteristically Midland Railway architecture, apart from the fact that its canopies have been cut back. The station is grade II listed

It became known as "Loughborough Midland" when Loughborough had three stations; Loughborough Derby Road (opened 1883 on the Charnwood Forest Railway, owned by London and North Western Railway from 1923 and closed to passengers in 1931) and Loughborough Central (Great Central Railway now used by the Great Central Railway (preserved)).

In future, there is to be a Loughborough Midland High-Level in which passengers could interchange with both network rail and the heritage GCR as the line is currently undergoing a heritage regeneration project.

Facilities

The station is staffed and has a side platform layout. A third, short platform was created on the down slow line for the commencement of Ivanhoe Line passenger services in 1993.

In 2000 passenger information systems were updated and now use dot matrix display screens. In 2006 automatic ticket gates were installed on all approaches to the station in order to cut down on fare evasion, these were complemented with ticket vending machines and additional FastTicket machines. The manual Tannoy system was replaced by an automated voice on 13 July 2011. Other facilities include bicycle racks, paid car parking, a shop and snack bar, public telephones and toilets. Taxis and buses are available outside; however, the bus to East Midlands Airport was withdrawn in 2010. Although the local Skylink service still operates from the town centre.

Refurbishment

Up until 2012 access to all but platform 1 was awkward for many passengers. The station had a footbridge and a barrow crossing to access platforms 2 and 3, in addition since the early 1990s the usable length of the two main platforms was four coaches due to the A60 road bridge.

Loughborough Eastern Gateway a locally led project proved to be the catalyst after many years of proposals to improve the station. The scheme got underway in March 2010.

A £7 million package of improvements was started at the station in June 2010. Platforms were extended to accommodate the longest trains which serve the station, lifts provided to access all platforms, and refurbishment of the existing ticket office, waiting rooms and glass platform canopies. The extended platforms 1 & 2 are capable of handling 10-car trains; and the extended platform 3 can handle up to 7-car trains. The new facilities were opened in good time for the British and Japanese Olympic squads basing themselves in the town.

Service patterns

Rail routes run north-south through Loughborough along the route known as the Midland Main Line, going south to London; and north to Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield.

East Midlands Trains (EMT) operate the station as well as all services.

The usual Monday - Saturday service pattern is as follows:

• Platform one -
  • Hourly East Midlands Trains service to Sheffield via Derby and Chesterfield
  • Hourly East Midlands Trains service to Nottingham via Beeston
• Platform two -
  • Hourly fast East Midlands Trains service to London St Pancras International via Leicester
  • Hourly semi-fast East Midlands Trains service to London St Pancras International via Kettering, Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway
• Platform three -
  • Hourly local East Midlands Trains service to Lincoln via East Midlands Parkway, Nottingham and Newark with peak hour trains to Sleaford
  • Hourly local East Midlands Trains service to Leicester via Syston

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Leicester		East Midlands Trains Midland Main Line		Beeston
				East Midlands Parkway
Barrow-upon-Soar		East Midlands Trains Leicester-Lincoln		East Midlands Parkway
Melton Mowbray		East Midlands Trains Nottingham-Norwich Limited service		East Midlands Parkway

External links

• Train times and station information for Loughborough railway station from National Rail
• Skylink bus timetable