East Midlands Hub was a planned new railway station on the Leeds Branch of

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

. It was intended to be located on the existing railway sidings in

Toton Toton is a large village in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England. The electoral ward of Toton and Chilwell Meadows population of this ward was 7,298 in the 2001 census. It increased to 8,238 at the 2011 census. Until 1974 Toton ...

, situated between

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

and

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 gai ...

. The station would have been located adjacent to the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, on the border with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. After a sifting process, High Speed Two Limited offered a shortlist of East Midlands options consisting of this site or the expansion of the existing Derby railway station, with the government stating its preference for a station at Toton in January 2013. The Toton plans are supported by

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It consists of 55 councillors, representing a total of 20 wards, elected every four years. The council is led by David Mellen, of ...

, whereas

Derby City Council Derby City Council is the local government unitary authority for Derby, a city in the East Midlands region of England. It comprises 51 councillors, three for each of the 17 electoral wards of Derby. Currently there is no overall control of the co ...

would prefer the station to be sited at Derby railway station and Rushcliffe Borough Council support the expansion of the existing East Midlands Parkway station. In early October 2014, reports emerged that the preferred location for the East Midlands Hub station had been relocated to

Breaston Breaston ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Erewash district, in the south-east of Derbyshire and lies approximately east of the city of Derby and west of the city of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2 ...

, 2-3 kilometres south-west of Toton. By July 2015 High Speed Two Limited confirmed they were not considering the Breaston site and that their preferred location for the station was at Toton. In November 2016 Phase 2b was approved by the Government. Plans for the station were officially scrapped in November 2021 when the government announced that HS2 would terminate at East Midlands Parkway station and not continue north to Leeds and York.

Background

In 2009, the Labour Government created ''High Speed Two (HS2) Limited'' to examine the prospect of further

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

in the United Kingdom. Later in 2010, the

Coalition Government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

confirmed there would be a terminus in both

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 populati ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. In January 2013 the final route was announced with a new station being proposed for Leeds and a new station adjacent to Piccadilly station for the terminus in Manchester. Both Leeds and Manchester were to have junctions to the south of the cities allowing for connections to the

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 broa ...

and the

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 ...

respectively. The East Midlands Hub station was announced at the same time and would be on the Leeds branch of HS2, between

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, 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 Historic counties o ...

Proposal

East Midlands Hub proposed station layout

The station would be a newly constructed site making use of existing railway land at Toton sidings. The proposals provide for a total of eight platforms, four of which would be for high-speed rail services and four for local and regional services. Two high-speed through lines would also be provided for services not stopping at the East Midlands Hub. The platforms would be constructed at ground level, with the station entrance and forecourt built at a higher elevation to the east. The site lies on designated

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

land, but is almost entirely surrounded by urban areas. The station is sited on existing railway land. Construction time of the station itself is estimated at five years, with services to be tested in 2031 and running by 2032/33.

Alternatives

The government selected the East Midlands Hub station at Toton as it was the "best of all the options HS2 Ltd developed for serving the East Midlands market as a whole". It offers approx. including existing companies on the site. The main alternative considered was for an HS2 station to be developed as part of the existing Derby station. High Speed Two Limited stated that this proposal would see a drop in the number of passengers travelling to and from Nottingham (and the wider area) and that £190 million of additional fare revenue could be made from the Toton Hub proposal when compared with a Derby-based HS2 station. In their consultation document, High Speed Two Limited stated that the Toton hub station could attract three-quarters of London-bound passengers from Derby and four-fifths of those from Nottingham. In July 2013

put forward plans to route HS2 through Derby via

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a former mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, England, lying within The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire, south-east of Burton upon Trent and north-west of Ashby-de ...

and near to

Belper Belper is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. As well as Belper itself, the parish also includes the village of Milford and the ha ...

, arguing that the route would be shorter and cheaper to construct. Council leader Cllr Paul Bayliss stated "It's not a secret we've been looking at HS2 having a station in Derby rather in some place called Toton". These plans are opposed by

, which stated it would prepare a study to describe why Toton would be the best option. In addition to the plans to locate an HS2 station in Derby, consideration was given to constructing the line through East Midlands Parkway and upgrading the existing station there. This would result in the line taking a different, more expensive route and High Speed Two Limited concluded that even with the cost of adding new connecting services to Toton factored in, a Toton station would be cheaper to build than an HS2 station at East Midlands Parkway. The green belt designation of the land at East Midlands Parkway was also felt to be a significant planning constraint that the Toton site was not subject to. Despite this, the plan to construct via East Midlands Parkway was supported by two councillors representing the Borough of

Rushcliffe Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough Council Breaston Breaston ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Erewash district, in the south-east of Derbyshire and lies approximately east of the city of Derby and west of the city of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2 ...

, Derbyshire, to the west of the M1 motorway. Consideration of the new station location was reported to be driven by reduced costs of the new alignment (as a result of not needing to tunnel the line under East Midlands Airport) and easier connections to the existing rail lines between Derby and Nottingham. By July 2015 High Speed Two Limited stated that Breaston was no longer being considered and that the preferred site was at Toton.

Cancellation

In 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 on 18 November 2021, the government announced updated plans for

High Speed 2 Phase Two High Speed 2 is a planned new high-speed railway line connecting London with the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds directly on new high speed track. East Midlands Airport will also be served. The railway is to be delivered in t ...

that involve the eastern leg to Leeds being scaled back with high-speed track from the south terminating at East Midlands Parkway and trains north of the station using existing track. The East Midlands Hub station will not be constructed and high-speed services will instead call at East Midlands Parkway.

Transport

Road

The proposed site sits close to

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 is approximately away from junction 25 of the

, where it intersects with the A52 dual-carriageway (Brian Clough Way) that links Derby and Nottingham. To the south of the site and the opposite side of the Trent River is the

A453 The A453 road was formerly the main trunk road connecting the English cities of Nottingham and Birmingham. However, the middle section of this mainly single-carriageway road has largely been downgraded to B roads or unclassified roads follo ...

which leads from Nottingham to East Midlands Airport and to the south-west Via A52 and M1 is the A50 connecting junction 24A of the M1 to

Stoke-upon-Trent Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England. The town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 18 ...

. The proposed site would include car parking and a new, dedicated connection to the A52. A

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

was planned for completion prior to the station opening and would have, alongside a new

Nottingham Express Transit Nottingham Express Transit (NET) is a tram system in Nottingham, England. The system opened to the public on 9 March 2004 and a second phase, that more than doubled the size of the total system, opened on 25 August 2015, having been initially ...

line, connected the station to Derby. New bus services were also planned to connect additional settlements to the station.

Cycling

The proposed site is within 50 metres of the Erewash Valley trail, which connects towns and villages within the

Erewash Valley The Erewash Valley is the valley of the River Erewash (pronounced ) on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as far as the River Trent. It runs along the boundary of the southern end of the Derbyshire hills and the more rolling Nottinghamsh ...

. It is 500 metres from route 6 of the Derby-Nottingham section of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

Rail

The proposed station would have been served by a dedicated rail service connecting it to stations in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham along with other significant stations in the region, including the

East Midlands Parkway railway station East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

which is approximately 5 kilometres south of the Toton site. Nottingham Express Transit opened an

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

to the

park & ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

system at Toton in 2015. An extension, planned for completion by 2040, would have seen the line extended to Derby with an interchange at East Midlands Hub.

Air

The proposed site is approximately 10 kilometres north-east of

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () nort ...

. A railway station at the airport was expected to be complete by 2040. This would have provided direct services to East Midlands Hub and onward to nearby cities.

References

External links

High Speed 2 Official Website
{{Proposed rail infrastructure projects in the United Kingdom High Speed 2 Proposed railway stations in England Rail transport in Nottinghamshire Transport in Derbyshire Transport in Nottinghamshire