Corby railway station, owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by East Midlands Railway, is in

Corby Corby is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, located north-east of Northampton. From 1974 to 2021, the town served as the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census, the built-up ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. The current station, opened on 23 February 2009, replaces an earlier one dating from 1879, first closed on 18 April 1966 but reopened between 1987 and 1990. Plans for the current station, opposite the original, were approved in late 2007. It opened with just one daily train each way on Mondays to Fridays. The full current service of hourly trains to and from London began on 27 April 2009, after East Midlands Trains had taken delivery of the additional trains needed for its implementation.

History

Corby station 1990 geograph-3319313-by-Ben-Brooksbank

The

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

opened Corby station in 1879. It was on the Nottingham direct line of the Midland Railway between and , serving Corby, and , instead of , and

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...

. The station was initially named "Weldon and Corby" to avoid confusion with Corby Glen station in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, which closed in 1959. British Railways (BR) withdrew passenger services from all stations on the Oakham to Kettering Line, including Corby, in May 1967. For some decades, Corby was one of the largest towns in Europe without a railway station (claimed as ''the'' largest in an episode of Series C of BBC TV show QI in 2005). BR kept the Oakham to Kettering line through Corby open for freight and as a diversionary route. It reduced the southern end of the line, from Glendon Junction (near Kettering) to Corby, to single track in 1986 after the closure of the town's steel works saw freight traffic levels decline. On 13 April 1987, a passenger service of 11 shuttle trains daily between Corby and , usually operated by a single DMU, was reintroduced with local council subsidy. More than 100,000 people used the service within the first 12 months and an extension to Leicester was proposed. However, the service became unreliable and the council withdrew its subsidy, leading Network Southeast to withdraw the service on 2 June 1990.

Reopening

Proposals

The East Midlands Branch of the independent campaign group

Railfuture Railfuture (formerly the Railway Development Society) is a UK advocacy group which promotes better rail services for passengers and freight across a bigger rail network. The group's national policies are determined by its national board of dir ...

proposed that the Kettering – Corby line should be included in a cross-country – service, but this was not implemented. In 2001,

Midland Mainline Midland Mainline was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Midland Main Line franchise from April 1996 until November 2007. Midland Mainline ran fast and semi-fast passenger services from ...

, the rail operator of the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...

franchise, decided against building a new station for Corby. In 2003, Corby's urban regeneration company, Catalyst Corby, announced plans to build a new station by 2011. In June 2006, the Department for Transport (DfT) told prospective bidders for the new East Midlands rail franchise (combining Midland Main Line services from London and the eastern section of the

Central Trains Central Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated a variety of local and inter-regional trains from 2 March 1997 until 11 November 2007. Overview Created out of the Central division o ...

network) that they would have to include in their tenders a price for a service to a new station in Corby. The DfT's East Midlands rail franchise consultation noted that Corby had been targeted for substantial housing growth over the course of the franchise and the provision of a station would be in line with the Sustainable Communities Plan. A new service could be created as an extension of the hourly London to Kettering service.

Announcements

In April 2007,

announced that it had allocated £1.2-million towards the rebuilding of the station as a response to housing and jobs growth in the county. A final decision on the station, planned to be open by December 2008, would be made by the Department for Transport. On 22 June, the DfT confirmed that Stagecoach had won the franchise and revealed that the company – operating as

East Midlands Trains East Midlands Trains (EMT) was a British train operating company owned by the transport group Stagecoach, which operated the East Midlands franchise between November 2007 and August 2019. Following the Department for Transport (DfT) award of ...

(EMT) – would run an extra hourly London to Kettering service, with the possibility of extending this to a new station in Corby and putting Corby within 75 minutes of central London. An article in the June 2008 edition of ''

Modern Railways ''Modern Railways'' is a British monthly magazine covering the rail transport industry which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012, and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was originally based in She ...

'', produced in cooperation with EMT, suggested that, from December 2008, Corby could be served by trains leaving St Pancras for Kettering at 8 minutes past each hour. However, pending the removal of infrastructure constraints – notably, the need to reinstate a third track between

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a large market and commuter town in the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, 65 miles from London and from Northampton on the north side of the River Nen ...

and Kettering and raise the line speed between Corby and Kettering – an hourly through-service to and from Corby would have been unfeasible initially, trains being unable to make the run from Kettering to Corby and back within the projected timings. Therefore, with the possible exception of some peak-time services, the connection to and from Corby would have to be provided mostly by a shuttle service, with a change of trains at Kettering. For this, EMT would need to lease additional

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

, speculated to be Class 222 stock cascaded from

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement u ...

. In addition, DfT approval of the hourly Kettering service was still awaited. Services had been due to start on 14 December 2008, but EMT admitted that it had yet to secure agreement with the DfT and the

rolling stock company A rolling stock company (ROSCO) or rolling stock leasing company owns and maintains railway engines and carriages which are leased to train operating companies who operate the trains. Africa * Sheltam Grindrod * Swifambo Rail Leasing Austral ...

(ROSCO) for the four additional trains needed. EMT then announced that services would not commence until 20 March 2009. The station's opening was then brought forward to 23 February 2009, but with a very limited interim timetable of one train to London and back each day. EMT promised that more services would begin once an additional three trains had become available. On 7 April 2009, East Midlands Trains announced that the full hourly service (13 trains each way) would begin from Monday 27 April 2009. Transport secretary

Geoff Hoon Geoffrey William Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of ...

presided over the official opening of the station on 30 April 2009, with hourly passenger trains to London and a limited northbound service.

Design and construction

The North Northants Development Company and

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

submitted plans for the design of the station in late July 2007 and detailed planning permission was granted by the Council in November. The Development Company predicted that the new station would unlock an estimated £200-million of further commercial investment in Corby, creating more than 1,200 jobs. It added that the station would also provide added impetus for residential development and aid the transformation of town centre shopping and civic facilities. The project cost £8.3 million, and construction began in June 2008, following the conclusion of an agreement with Kettering construction firm Mainline Contractors. The station was built at Station Road, adjacent to the site of the old station, to act as a transport interchange for Corby, with bus and taxi facilities being relocated there. A new road was planned to lead into the interchange, which would also have a 140-space car park, taxi rank, drop-off and pick-up areas and a bus area. Site clearance works began in March 2008 and were completed in the summer. The station is the third to be built to the modular station design developed by Network Rail, following and . There has been criticism of the design by the

Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for C ...

that: An artist's impression of the station was on the website of the local MP,

Phil Hope Philip Ian Hope (born 19 April 1955) is a former British Labour and Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Corby from 1997 until 2010, when he lost his seat to the Conservatives. He held several ministerial roles d ...

. In June 2009, it was announced that the station had won the

Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (formerly the Institution of Highways and Transportation) is a UK-based learned society (with worldwide membership) concerned specifically with the planning, design, construction, maintenan ...

's Award for Effective Partnerships and received praise for having been built on time, within budget and to a high standard.

Future

Corby_railway_station,_Northamptonshire_(geograph_6403849)

It was planned that a half-hourly

London St Pancras International St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It i ...

to Nottingham via Corby service would be operated by East Midlands Railway from May 2021 using Class 360 electric trains, once the

has been electrified beyond as part of the

Electric Spine The "Electric Spine" was the name for part of a, now largely cancelled, rolling programme of railway electrification projects in England initially estimated to cost £800 million, but later thought to cost close to £3 billion. The aim was to fo ...

project. However large portions of the spine project were cancelled. Network Rail did complete the re-doubling of the singled Glendon Junction to Corby section as part of the overall upgrade scheme in March 2018."Commission accomplished! Extra rail line between Kettering and Corby enters into use"
''NetworkRail Media Center'' article 09-03-2018; Retrieved 24-12-2018 Electric services were duly introduced in May 2021. Although the spine project has been cancelled, the Midland Main Line railway upgrade is in progress with the electrification and modernisation of the section from

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the adm ...

ongoing from December 2021. In addition, the

Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands The Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands or more simply, the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), is a United Kingdom government proposal published on 18 November 2021. It aims to deliver "increased capacity, faster journeys or more frequent ser ...

published by the DfT on 18 November 2021 shows the entire line to Sheffield will now proceed. Meanwhile, the planning of building 150 new flats to the south of the station was approved by Corby council in May 2018."150 flats planned for Northamptonshire train station site"
''Eastmidlands Business Link'' article 11-05-2018; Retrieved 24-12-2018"Controversial flats development near Corby train station approved"
''Northamptonshire Telegraph'' article 16-05-2018; Retrieved 24-12-2018"Erection of 150 residential units at Land off Station Road, Corby"
''Corby Council Planning Permission'' 15-05-2018; Retrieved 24-12-2018

East-West Rail – Northern Route

The Kettering – Manton line ''via'' Corby was also considered for reopening to passengers as part of the

East West Rail East West Rail is a major project to establish a strategic railway connecting East Anglia with Central, Southern and Western England. In particular, it plans to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keyn ...

between , and . Three routes were considered, with Corby on the northern route. A new chord would have been needed at Manton for direct running between Corby and . Despite being the cheapest of the three options, the northern route has been ruled out as being too indirect.

Electrification and associated works

In July 2009, the Labour government published a document and said it was looking at electrification of the

but no funds had been committed. When originally planned and announced, the line upgrade was costed at £1.6 billion and it was expected that the line would be electrified as far as

and

by 2017. The 2012 announcement by the Conservative led coalition government was that

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of the railway line between

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, Leicester,

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

would go ahead. This was part of the High Level Output Specification for Control Period 5. This was also part of a rolling programme of railway electrification projects. An extra track was to be installed between Kettering and Corby. It appeared in the autumn statement of 2011. A 2014 RAIL Magazine article gave a detailed account of the work ahead. The whole

scheme also overlapped with the

project. In June 2015, Patrick McLoughlin paused the electrification project but on 30 September 2015 the scheme was restarted. The completion dates were now three years later than originally planned, with electrification to Kettering and Corby now targeted for completion in 2019. The line from Kettering to Corby was to be doubled, and Network Rail started work in June 2015. The Enhancements plan update of January 2016 showed the project on target. In January 2021 electrification of the

to Corby was completed. The electrified line is being fed via the

autotransformer An autotransformer is an electrical transformer with only one winding. The " auto" (Greek for "self") prefix refers to the single coil acting alone, not to any kind of automatic mechanism. In an autotransformer, portions of the same winding act a ...

system. A new grid feeder will be needed at Braybrooke, just south of Market Harborough. Work was announced as starting on the grid feeder in the Market Harborough area on 8 April 2021. The transformers were delivered to site in December 2021.

Services

With the introduction of the EMR Connect Service in May 2021, Corby now has two electric trains per hour to London. EMR operates two trains each way per day from

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

and

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

to London St. Pancras International, one of which terminates at

References

External links

Catalyst Corby's plans for Station Gateway Business Park and the stationCorby Borough Council
{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations in Northamptonshire DfT Category E stations Former Midland Railway stations 1879 establishments in England Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1879 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1987 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1990 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2009 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations opened by Network Rail