Leicester railway station (formerly Leicester Campbell Street and Leicester London Road) is a mainline railway station in the city of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

, England. The station is managed by

East Midlands Railway Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. History In March 2017, the Department for Transport ...

and 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 len ...

. The station is served by

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT ...

and East Midlands Railway services. Leicester station was opened in 1840 by the

Midland Counties Railway The Midland Counties' Railway (MCR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1839 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, to London. The MCR ...

, and rebuilt in 1894 and 1978. It is on 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 ...

, which runs from London St Pancras to

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 ...

and

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 ...

. It is north of London St Pancras.

Background

Leicester Campbell Street railway station

The first station on the site opened on 5 May 1840. It was originally known simply as ''Leicester'', becoming ''Leicester Campbell Street'' on 1 June 1867, and ''Leicester London Road'' from 12 June 1892. This was replaced in 1894 by a new station, also called ''Leicester London Road''. Following the closure of

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

on 5 May 1969, this station was renamed ''Leicester''. Besides London Road and Central, the city of Leicester was served by

Belgrave Road Belgrave Road is a street in the Pimlico area of London.Belgrave Road GuideWest Bridge railway stations.

History

Midland Railway Station, Leicester, 1908

Leicester was one of the first cities (though then a town) to be served by a railway, when the

Leicester and Swannington Railway The Leicester and Swannington Railway (L&SR) was one of England's first railways, built to bring coal from West Leicestershire collieries to Leicester, where there was great industrial demand for coal. The line opened in 1832, and included a tun ...

built its terminus station at

West Bridge The West Bridge is a growing architectural approach, originally developed by Cypress Semiconductor, which enhances and modularizes a peripheral controller in an embedded computer architecture. Conceptually, the West Bridge parallels and complement ...

on the western side of

in 1832. The Leicester and Swannington Railway was later absorbed by 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 ...

. In total, Leicester had seven railway stations (eight if the two sites at West Bridge are treated separately). In addition to the current Leicester station, three other main railway stations existed. The original station at

closed to passengers in 1928. '' Leicester Belgrave Road'' (on the Great Northern Railway) closed to passengers in 1962 and '' Leicester Central'' (on the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

) closed in May 1969. From 1892 up until this time, the current Leicester station was known as ''Leicester London Road''. In addition, there were smaller stations within the city boundary at Humberstone Road on the LMS, Humberstone on the GNR, and, from 1874 until 1918, a halt at Welford Road was operated on the Leicester – London main line allowing access to the Cattle Market. At this halt, passengers were allowed to leave the trains but not to board them.

The station buildings

The contract for the first station on the present site was awarded by the

to Waterfield and Smith, and was just under £15,000 (). It was first used on 4 May 1840, when a train of four first and six second-class carriages, pulled by the ''Leopard'' steam engine, arrived from Nottingham. As was normal in those days with a through station, the original plan was to build it to the side of the main line, but instead it was finally built on the main line with a single platform 165 yards long to handle both northbound and southbound trains. The station was designed by William Parsons in the Grecian Revival style, with a two-storey main building which was embellished with a central pediment set forward on fluted columns in front. This was flanked by short single-storey wings. It was the headquarters of the Midland Counties Railway until that railway was amalgamated into the

in 1844. Upstairs were the company offices and boardroom, while downstairs was the booking hall, waiting and refreshment rooms. The opening of new routes to Leicester led to steadily increasing traffic and, by 1858, a second platform had been built to handle southbound traffic, so leaving the original platform to handle northbound traffic. In 1868, it was decided to turn the southbound platform into an

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular o ...

to further increase capacity, but this was not possible with the northbound platform due to the presence of the main buildings and station entrance. Further expansion was contemplated for some time, but it was not until 1890 that the go ahead was given for Campbell Street station to be replaced by the present ''Leicester railway station''. All that remains of the first station is a pair of gateposts in an Egyptian style at the end of Station Street. The offices for

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

now occupy some of the site of the old station buildings on Campbell Street. The Midland Railway completely rebuilt the station between 1892 and 1894 to a design by the architect Charles Trubshaw. The new booking office was opened by the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

in June 1892 when it was renamed Leicester London Road. The station was completed in 1894. The frontage on London Road featured four entrance archways. Above each of the left-hand pair the word "Departure" was inscribed and, above each of the other two, the word "Arrival" was carved in relief. These signs were to assist cab drivers when dropping passengers who intended to catch departing trains, or were plying for hire by passengers who had arrived by train. The new station frontage on London Road remains as a well-preserved late Victorian building, but the interior of the booking hall and the structures on the platforms were reconstructed by

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

in 1978. The station clock is the only hand-wound station clock in the UK. A commemorative statue of

Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was an English businessman. He is best known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was also one of the initial developers of the "package tour" including travel, accommodatio ...

was placed on the pavement outside the present station in 1991 to mark the first excursions arranged by the

travel agency A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinati ...

magnate. It was sculpted by James Butler.

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

Until the line from Matlock to Chinley through Millers Dale was closed by the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

, the 'main lines' were those from London to Manchester, carrying named expresses such as ''

The Palatine ''The Palatine'' was the name given to an express passenger train, introduced by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1938: the 10.00 from Manchester Central to London St Pancras and the return working, the 16.30 from St Pancras to Manc ...

''. Express trains to Leeds and Scotland such as the '' Thames-Clyde Express'' tended to use the Erewash Valley Line before proceeding on to the Settle and Carlisle Line. Expresses to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, such as '' The Waverley'' travelled through Corby and Nottingham. Leicester railway station 2059953 3fc31f5e

British Railways

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by the InterCity sector until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

ways. With the advent of power signalling in 1986, the

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

and the crossovers disappeared, and the tracks approaching the station were relaid to allow trains from any direction to enter or leave any platform.

Privatisation

Upon the

, the station became owned by

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

and later

; however, in common with most British railway stations, the day-to-day operation was contracted out to the largest user of the station, in this case

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 ...

. Midland Mainline continued to refurbish the station with the installation of a large electronic departure board in the station entrance hall and smaller boards on all platforms. In 2006, work was started on the installation of automatic ticket gates to cut down on

fare evasion Fare evasion or fare dodging, fare violation, rarely called ticket evasion, is the act of travelling on public transport without paying by deliberately not buying a required ticket to travel (having had the chance to do so). It is a problem in man ...

. Leicester City Council issued plans for the redevelopment of the station and the surrounding area including a total of eight platforms. Re-surfacing of the platforms took place throughout 2010.

Station Masters

*Samuel Tyas/Tyers 1840 - 1860 *G.H. Smart 1860 - 1864 *Robert Michie 1867 - 1896 (formerly station master at Newark Castle) *S.M. Bramley 1896 - 1901 *William Orton 1901 - 1903 *Richard William Mapp 1903 – 1919 (formerly station master at Gloucester) *C.W. Jones 1919 - 1931 (formerly station master at Kettering) *W. A. Soden 1931 - 1932 (formerly station master at Stoke, afterwards station master at Carlisle) *W. Lowis 1932 - 1940 (formerly station master at Lincoln) *Charles Edward Fry 1940 - 1943 (formerly station master at Huddersfield, afterwards station master at Leeds) *Oscar Best 1943 - 1948 (formerly station master at Huddersfield) *Arthur Johnson 1948 -1954(formerly station master at Coventry)

Station amenities

The main entrance to the station is on London Road. The ticket office and travel centre are located in the

concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...

; the lost property office and lockers were formerly located here also although

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 ...

took these facilities away in 2009 citing cost and the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

. This concourse gives access to the main station

overbridge An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together for ...

to all platforms, and via a corridor to the lifts. There is a

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at ...

at the northern end of the station giving access to the long-stay

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

and Campbell Street. The station is based on two

s which are wide with a long series of buildings. There is a newsagent and several food outlets including a licensed restaurant. There are also toilets and a large waiting room.

erected a first class lounge at the southern end of the up island platforms during 2000. Passenger information systems were updated at the same time and now use

dot matrix A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Most types of modern technology use dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions, and printers. The system is al ...

display screens. Leicester has automated announcements, which replaced the previous manual public address system in September 2011. In 2006, automatic ticket barriers were installed on all approaches to the station. The station has an office for the

British Transport Police , nativename = , abbreviation = BTP , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg , logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police , badge = , badgecaption = , f ...

and

Cash point An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fund ...

in the porte-cochere as well as a taxi rank and short-stay drop-off and pick-up area.

Services

Routes run north–south through Leicester on the

, south to

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) ...

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 t ...

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

; and north to

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 ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

. Junctions north and south of the station serve the east-west cross country route, going east to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

; and west to

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton ...

and . Leicester station is owned by

and operated under a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. Most services are provided by East Midlands Railway, with

operating on the Birmingham to Stansted Airport corridor. Due to a 15 mph maximum speed to the south of the station, as well as the size and importance of the city, all passenger trains stop at the station. Up until the winter 2008 timetable, the morning southbound '' The Master Cutler'' express from

to London St Pancras was an exception although this now also calls. Leicester is a bottleneck station as it has only four platforms. All platforms are well utilised, especially platforms two and three which receive freight as well as passenger trains. A freight loop goes to the east of the station alongside the carriage sidings which run adjacent to platform four. Leicester is a penalty fare station, a valid ticket or

permit to travel In the ticketing system of the British rail network, a Permit to Travel provisionally allows passengers to travel on a train when they have not purchased a ticket in advance and the ticket office of the station they are travelling from is close ...

must be shown when requested. The station offers the Plusbus scheme which allows bus and train tickets to be bought together at a saving. EMT HST 43058 Leicester AB1

Departures

*Platform one – **Hourly local

service to

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

via

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbo ...

**Hourly semi-fast East Midlands Railway service to

via

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 ...

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...

and

*Platform two – **Hourly fast East Midlands Railway service to

**Hourly fast East Midlands Railway service to Sheffield, with peak hour services to

**Hourly semi-fast East Midlands Railway service to Nottingham via Loughborough, with peak hour services to

**Hourly

service to

via

*Platform three – **Hourly fast East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancras **Hourly semi-fast East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancras via

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 ...

and

**Second semi-fast East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancras via Market Harborough and Kettering **Hourly fast CrossCountry service to Birmingham New Street *Platform four – **Hourly fast East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancras through from Sheffield **Hourly East Midlands Railway 'Ivanhoe' service to Lincoln via

Syston Syston ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of Charnwood in Leicestershire, England. The population was 11,508 at the 2001 census, rising to 12,804 at the 2011 census. Overview There has been a settlement on the site for over 1,0 ...

and Newark with peak hour trains to

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

Future

Regeneration of the station

''Prospect Leicestershire'' led plans which aimed to regenerate the city centre area of Leicester, the station was to be incorporated into a new business quarter. Plans for the station included to rotate the passengers facilities so that they exited into a new open city plaza rather than the current busy ring road. Renewed plans were released in 2008 for the £150 million redevelopment, promising over 2,800 new jobs in the area due to the new shops and offices which would be created. However, the

2008–2012 global recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

also saw these plans fail to materialise. Network Rail and East Midlands Trains started work on a £3.5 million scheme in 2012. Platforms have been resurfaced, toilets and both first and standard class waiting areas refurbished. The majority of work has taken place in the concourse and porte corche area where a new travel centre is being provided. Network Rail adopted a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007 which will create a new cross country freight route from

(

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running b ...

) to

(

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

). One of the next stages (around 2013) will create additional lines through Leicester during a re-signalling scheme. During this period additional platforms may be provided at Leicester.

Electrification

As of 2022 the railway through Leicester is not electrified. Plans to carry out full electrification of the Midland Mainline were cancelled on 20 July 2017, after being previously announced, commenced, suspended and resumed. From 2022, services will be operated using bi-mode electro-diesel trains running in electro-pantograph mode between London St Pancras and

, switching to electro-accumulator/diesel-electric mode northwards from there. In the decade starting 2020 various events changed the prospects for the station even though improvements had been on and off the political agenda for over a decade. Various news outlets reported in December 2020 that prospects for electrification to

were improving. On 23 March 2021, the Transport Select Committee published its sixth report in the Trains fit for the Future enquiry, which called for a rolling programme of electrification. It stated the

project would be divided into eight sections.

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 ...

confirmed that the project would continue north of

all the way to

and

. Another major development was the publishing of the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) on 18 November 2021. This included full Midland Main Line electrification and upgrades. F2N is still being upgraded in stages.

Ivanhoe Line

After phase one of the Ivanhoe Line was completed in the mid-1990s, it was originally planned that phase two would extend the line west to

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...

on the current freight-only line via

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

and

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshir ...

. The possibility was studied in 2008 and again in 2016 but in both cases the conclusion was that the cost was not justified by the benefits. The most recent study, in 2016, costed the work at up to £175 million and claimed that an additional 206,000 houses would need to be built along the route to generate enough passengers to make the line profitable.

References

External links

Leicester Train Station Information

{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Transport in Leicester Railway stations in Leicestershire Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations served by CrossCountry Charles Trubshaw railway stations DfT Category B stations