Midland Mainline was a

train operating company A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993. T ...

in the United Kingdom owned by

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

that operated the Midland Main Line franchise from April 1996 until November 2007. Midland Mainline ran fast and semi-fast passenger services from

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 ...

to the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, L ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, 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 ...

. Most services ran between London St Pancras and either , or . Some services extended to , , , , and .

History

The Midland Mainline franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to

for a period of ten years with operations commencing on 28 April 1996. In May 1999 Midland Mainline was able to extend its sphere of operation after receiving new rolling stock. In August 2000 the Shadow

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for the railway industry. Its motto was 'Britain's railway, properly delivered'. I ...

awarded a two-year extension in return for National Express committing to invest including ordering new rolling stock and running an hourly service to Leeds.

Service patterns

The off peak service pattern, upon conclusion of the franchise in November 2007, consisted of four departures per hour from London St Pancras. There were two fast and two semi-fast trains per hour. The hourly pattern from St Pancras was as below:National Rail Timetable 20 May - 8 December 2007 ''Network Rail'' xx00: semi-fast 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 ...

, calling at: *

Luton Airport Parkway Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is down the line from London St Pancras between to the south and to ...

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 ...

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 ...

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) ...

* Market Harborough *

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 ...

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 *

*Extension 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 ...

calling at: ** Willington **

*Extension to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

, generally calling at: **

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 ...

** Chesterfield ** Dronfield occasional service **

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 ...

** Meadowhall **

*Extension to Scarborough (Saturdays). This service called at Scarborough during part of the summer timetable only, all other times this service terminated at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. This service called at: ** Chesterfield **

** Meadowhall **

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

** Scarborough This service was operated by four or five carriage Class 222 ''Meridians''. xx25: fast to

, generally calling just at: *

* Chesterfield *

*This train forms the limited (see below) extension to

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 ...

generally calling at: **

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

*Extension to

(Sundays) calling at: **

This service was generally operated by ''High Speed Trains'', although a few diagrams use eight-carriage Class 222 ''Meridians'' xx30: semi-fast to

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 ...

, calling at: *

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 ...

* Market Harborough *

* Beeston *

with a journey time of 1 hour 56 minutes This service was operated by four or five carriage Class 222 ''Meridians'' xx55: fast to

, generally calling at: *

(every hour or two) *

with a journey time of 1 hour 41 minutes This service was generally operated by eight-carriage Class 222 ''Meridians'' although sometimes a Class 43 ''High Speed Train'' was used. *All Midland Mainline services (except The Master Cutler morning up service) called at

with the fastest journey time to and from London of 1 hour 9 minutes. *The services between London, Luton and Bedford supplemented the high frequency

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

and later First Capital Connect commuter service.

Limited services

Midland Mainline bus Corby Rail link livery in Kettering, Northamptonshire June 2004

Midland Mainline operated a limited service between St Pancras and

, with three early morning departures from Leeds and four evening return trips from St Pancras. This was principally because Midland Mainline's HSTs were maintained at Neville Hill depot. The timings did not compare favourably with the principal service from

London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kin ...

to Leeds along 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 b ...

with the

having a much slower line speed. The journey time on the Midland route is around 3 hours 15 minutes vs 2 hours 15 minutes via the East Coast."MML serves 6 new stations" ''Rail Magazine'' issue 355 21 April 1999 page 355 In July 1996, a bus service between

and

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 ...

was introduced. From May 1999, a small number of through trains from St Pancras to

and

were introduced as well as stops at

and Meadowhall. From May 2000, through trains between St Pancras and Matlock were introduced, ceasing in December 2004 when Class 222s were introduced, as they were not allowed on the Derwent Valley Line branch line."Midland Mainline run to Scarborough this summer" ''Rail Magazine'' issue 384 14 June 2000 page 4 Also in May 2000 Midland Mainline began operating one Saturday service between St Pancras and

via

. In summer it would continue to Scarborough. On Sunday a service to York started at

, with the return service being via the Erewash Valley Line to Nottingham, where it reversed before proceeding to St Pancras. A small number of trains operated between St Pancras and Sheffield via Nottingham and along the Erewash Valley Line to Chesterfield serving

Langley Mill Langley Mill is a large village in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. History Originally named ''Long Lea'', the village of Langley Mill was a major employer throughout the mid 1900s with many companies including The Flour Mi ...

and

Alfreton Alfreton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The town was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton parish was 7,971 at the 2011 Census. The villages of ...

Project Rio

From May 2003 until September 2004, Midland Mainline operated an hourly service between St Pancras and

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

; this was at the request of the

whilst 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 ...

between London Euston and Manchester underwent engineering work using former

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

High Speed Trains.Privatisation 1993 - 2005
125 Group This temporary service was named ''Project Rio'' after the similarity of the route to footballer

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and w ...

's recent transfer movements. He first transferred from West Ham United to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

, then later crossed the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...

in a £30 million record transfer to

Manchester United 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 ...

. The service used the

as far as Trent Junction, before taking the Erewash Valley Line (avoiding

) to Clay Cross, rejoining the Midland Main Line until Dore South Junction, using Dore Tunnel Curve to join the Hope Valley Line westwards towards

. South of Leicester, the service ran in the path of the xx:30 semi-fast Nottingham train, with an additional Leicester to Nottingham service introduced using the displaced Class 170 ''Turbostar''.

Named trains

* The Robin Hood on the 06:30 Sheffield to St Pancras via Nottingham, and returning as the 17:00 St Pancras to Nottingham. * The Master Cutler on the 06:14 Leeds to St Pancras which runs non stop from Chesterfield, and 16:55 St Pancras to Leeds return. * The Midlands Express on the 07:05 Sheffield to St Pancras.

Rolling stock

Midland Mainline inherited a fleet of High Speed Trains from

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

. Enhancements were carried out to the power cars of the HSTs, most notably a revised lighting cluster. In April 1997 Midland Mainline ordered 13 (later expanded to 17) Class 170 ''Turbostars'' to operate stopping services. Originally all were ordered as two-carriage sets before it was decided to increase 10 to three-carriage sets. The first entered service in May 1999 and allowed a new timetable with increased frequencies to be introduced with the Class 170s operating most of the stops south of Leicester, allowing the HSTs to be better used on the longer-distance services. To cover for a shortage of HSTs, Midland Mainline hired two Fragonset Class 47 locomotives to top and tail a set of

HSBC Rail HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In ...

Mark 2 Mark 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In this chapter, the first arguments between Jesus and other Jewish religious teachers appear. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, m ...

carriages on a morning service from

to London St Pancras and evening return to

from February 2002. In October 2002 Midland Mainline was able to replace these, after leasing an additional five HST power cars and two sets of

Mark 3 Mark 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It relates a conflict over healing on the Sabbath, the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles, a conflict with scribes and a meeting of Jesus with h ...

carriages that had been released by

. In February 2002 Midland Mainline ordered sixteen four-carriage and seven nine-carriage Class 222 ''Meridian'' trains based on Virgin CrossCountry's Class 220 ''Voyager'', but with developments to improve passenger comfort and address some of the criticisms aimed at the Voyager. The first entered service in May 2004. The four-carriage sets replaced the Class 170s, which were transferred to

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 ...

, while the nine-carriage sets were ordered to operate a new service from London St Pancras to

via Nottingham and the Erewash Valley Line. When the

ruled that there was not enough demand for this service, the nine-carriage sets were left sitting idle until eventually they were put into use on the services between Nottingham/Sheffield and London St Pancras from July 2005, releasing one HST for hire to

First Great Western Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.GNER to allow that operator to run extra services to Leeds from May 2007. As the nine-carriage Meridians were lightly loaded while the four-carriage sets were overcrowded, it was decided in 2006 to reduce all of the nine-carriage sets to eight carriages, the removed carriages then being used to extend seven of the four-carriage sets to five carriages. A further reconfiguration of the Meridians took place in 2008, shortly after

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 over Midland Mainline's services, when six of the eight-carriage sets were reduced to seven carriages and the remaining set was reduced to five carriages, allowing all nine of the remaining four-carriage sets to be extended to five carriages. To operate the Project Rio services to

, 23 HST power cars and associated Mark 3 carriages were transferred from Virgin CrossCountry in May 2003. Whilst these were undergoing overhaul, a First Great Western HST was hired from May 2003 until February 2004. When Project Rio concluded in September 2004, some were transferred to First Great Western and GNER, while others went into store. Midland Mainline's fleet consisted of the following trains at the time they ceased operating:

Final fleet

Previous fleet

Stations

*Midland Mainline operated at twenty-seven stations, of which it managed eight: London St Pancras,

, Market Harborough,

, Chesterfield and

. *Other stations served included:

Bedford Midland Bedford railway station (formerly Bedford Midland Road and historically referred to on some signage as Bedford Midland) is the larger of two railway stations in the town of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. It is on the Midland Main Line fro ...

, Long Eaton, Willington,

, Beeston,

, Dronfield, Meadowhall,

Wakefield Westgate Wakefield Westgate railway station is a mainline railway station in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It is south of Leeds to the west of the city centre, on the Wakefield Line and Leeds branch of the East Coast Main Line. The first Westgat ...

, Scarborough. *Stations which used to be served but then had their Midland Mainline services stop before the franchise ended: Duffield, Ambergate,

Whatstandwell Whatstandwell is a village on the River Derwent in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. It is about five miles south of Matlock and about four miles north of Belper. Whatstandwell railway station is located on the Derby-Matlock ...

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-centur ...

Matlock Bath Matlock Bath is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England. It lies in the Peak District, south of Matlock on the main A6 road, and approximately halfway between Buxton and Derby. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census wa ...

, Matlock,

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is withi ...

Depot

Midland Mainline's HSTs were maintained at Neville Hill with the rest of the fleet at Derby Etches Park.

Demise

As part of a redrawing of the rail franchise map from November 2007, the Midland Mainline franchise was combined with some

services into a new East Midlands franchise. In September 2006 the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

(DfT) announced that National Express, Arriva,

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. In June 2007 the DfT awarded the franchise to Stagecoach, with the services operated by Midland Mainline transferring to

on 11 November 2007.Department for Transport announces winner of East Midlands franchise
Department for Transport 22 June 2007

History

Service patterns

Limited services

Project Rio

Named trains

Rolling stock

Final fleet

Previous fleet

Stations

Depot

Demise

References

Further reading