Melton Mowbray railway station

Melton Mowbray railway station serves the market town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and operated by East Midlands Railway, though CrossCountry operates most of the services as part of its to route. The station is on the route of the Syston and Peterborough Railway, which is now part of the Birmingham to Peterborough Line. It has a ticket office, which is staffed part-time, a car park, and help points for times when no staff are present.

History

The station opened as ''Melton'' on 1 September 1846, with two sections of the Syston and Peterborough line, from Leicester to Melton and Stamford to Peterborough. The opening of the former had been delayed by opposition from a landowner, Lord Harborough.

The building is thought to have been designed by William Parsons and Sancton Wood. It was built by the contractor Herberts at a then cost of £3,021. The ''porte-cochère'' was added later by the Midland Railway in an attempt to improve the station in response to competition from the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway, which opened Melton North in 1879.

The station was badly damaged by a snowstorm on Tuesday 11 April 1876. The weight of snow on the corrugated iron roof that spanned the two platforms and lines, about long and wide, caused the roof to collapse shortly after a goods train had passed through. Fortunately there were no passengers on the platforms and no fatalities. A small section of remaining roof in poor condition was yanked down with a long chain, using a locomotive. The line was cleared in about three hours.

On 1 November 1876 the station was renamed ''Melton Mowbray'', in 1923 ''Melton Mowbray South'' and in 1957 ''Melton Mowbray Town'', to distinguish it from the former Melton Mowbray North on the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway, though this closed to regular traffic in 1953.

It was refurbished in 2011 with new glass in the platform canopies, resurfaced platforms, passenger information screens, improved disabled access to the barrow crossing, a full repaint and a new footbridge. The refurbishment of the platforms retained their original size – previous plans to extend them by up to by no later than 2012 were omitted.

Stationmasters

*J. Withers, c. 1849–1850, former station master at Syston, afterwards at Grantham
*John Willis, 1850–1862
*George William Earp, 1862–1864
*W. Barker, 1864
*W. Butterfield, from 1864
*Robert Jeffrey, c. 1869–1873
*T. B. Symonds, 1873–1878, former station master of Berkley Road station, Gloucester, absconded after suspension on 28 November 1878
*Thomas Bedington, 1878–1908
*Lawrence Palmer Briggs, 1908–1913, afterwards station master at Trent
*James Sparling, 1913–1929, former station master at Rowsley
*Frederick Charles Robinson, 1929–1940

Services

Melton Mowbray has an hourly service off-peak in both directions operated by CrossCountry. Westbound trains run to Birmingham via , and Coleshill. Eastbound trains run to via , Ely and . Additional trains run at peak times, with some terminating at Cambridge.

Although the next station westbound is , there are no direct services between the two.

Despite managing the station, East Midlands Railway (EMR) only operates limited services to the station: a single daily return service to London St Pancras via Corby commenced on 27 April 2009. It is notable as the first regular passenger service to cross the historic Welland Viaduct on the Oakham to Kettering line since 1966. The company introduced a further return service from via East Midlands Parkway (for East Midlands Airport) from May 2010. Further services are being considered. There are two daily services to and from London, one calling at , , , , , and , and the other at , , , , , and .

A handful of local services operate at either end of the day, mainly for train-crew route-knowledge retention purposes. A morning service runs from to and an evening service from to Nottingham via Peterborough.

Former services

According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P, F, L, H, C and there was a 7-ton crane.

Just outside Melton Mowbray station the main line is joined by the Old Dalby Test Track. This runs towards Nottingham via Old Dalby, but stops short of Nottingham railway station at the edge of the suburb of West Bridgford. This is electrified with overheads, has its own control centre and dates from when the British Rail Research Division developed it as a test track for the Advanced Passenger Train, having been taken out of use some years before. It has, more recently, been used for testing Virgin Trains' Pendolino units and later for the testing of new stock for London Underground built by Derby Litchurch Lane Works.

Facility

Railway station lavatories have not been noted for the luxury of their appointments. However, at Melton Mowbray North station, the toilet of the former first-class waiting room had a hot-water pipe coursing through the seat.

Awards

Melton Mowbray station won a "highly commended" award at the National Rail Awards 2014 as Small station of the year.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway

Melton Mowbray
Railway stations in Leicestershire
DfT Category E stations
Former Midland Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1848
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848
Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway
Railway stations served by CrossCountry
1846 establishments in England