Place Market Harborough Station code MHR DfT category C2 Opened 1 May 1850 Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference SP741874 Managed by East Midlands Trains 2011/12 0.746 million Phone +44 345 712 5678 | |
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Address St Mary's Rd, Market Harborough LE16 7DT, UK Similar East Midlands Parkway r, Corby railway station, Kettering railway station, Wellingborough railway station, Batley railway station | ||
Flooding near market harborough railway station emt 222
Market Harborough railway station is a Grade II listed station which serves the town of Market Harborough in Leicestershire, England. It is situated to the east of the town centre and lies on the Midland Main Line, 16 miles (26 km) south-east of Leicester.
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History
The original station was opened on 1 May 1850 by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) on its line between Stamford to Rugby and thence to Euston. The Midland Railway shared it from 1857 when it built its extension from Leicester to Bedford and Hitchin. On 16 February 1859 the branch line to Northampton opened.
The station was the scene of a serious accident on 28 August 1862. An excursion train bound for Burton-upon-Trent stopped to pick up water, and a second train bound for Leicester collided with the rear of it. The accident resulted in the death of one person and seventy were injured.
As traffic built up, the Midland opened a new line on 26 June 1885 at a higher elevation, crossing the LNWR and then running parallel to a new joint station in the present position.
The new station building was opened on 14 September 1884. It was built by Parnell and Sons of Rugby from designs by John William Livock and Millbank. The engineer was Hirst of Rugby.
Market Harborough was the largest station within the county boundary south of Leicester. Such was the volume of traffic, a junction for five different directions at its height, by 1870 plans for an engine shed were released in addition to the already provided loco pit, turntable and water tank. A shed was never built but this did not stop it becoming a sub-shed of Leicester in later years.
The service on the original LNWR line was drastically reduced in 1960 and it finally closed in June 1966. Freight traffic on the line to Northampton continued until closure in August 1981, when the station ceased to be a junction. The Midland line continues, with the platform buildings and canopies replaced with modern designs in the sixties. The main building survived, however, and was carefully restored in 1981.
Services
Market Harborough is served by the fast and semi-fast East Midlands Trains Class 222 "Meridian"/HST services. Trains to London are around every half hour and all off peak trains now start or end at Nottingham. One of these are fast going non-stop to or from London. While the other is a semi-fast service via Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway. Services north to Nottingham call at Leicester and either Loughborough and Beeston or East Midlands Parkway. In the morning and evening some services are extended to Lincoln via Newark.
With a journey time to London of just over one hour, the frequency of trains to the capital in the morning and evening peak is excellent for commuting, with a train running (occasionally non stop) every twenty minutes with the quickest journeys taking fifty-five minutes.
Weekend services include trains operating to York and, in the summer, Scarborough.
Bus services depart from outside the station and operate throughout the town and also to both Lutterworth, Hinckley and Leicester.
The initial specification for the East Midlands Trains franchise, which started in 2007, would have seen a big reduction in the number of trains calling at Market Harborough. These plans were fought against by the Harborough Rail Users' Group, and, as a result, the final specification saw no reduction in services.
Stagecoach promised as part of their bid that they would create additional car parking spaces at stations along their route, Market Harborough's new larger car park opened early in 2008.
Market Harborough is a Penalty fare station, meaning that as there are facilities to buy tickets at the station, a valid ticket or Permit to travel must be shown when requested, rather than being able to buy tickets on the train.
Future
Market Harborough station is located on a large curve on the Midland Main Line, as a result of this line speeds through the station have always been relatively slow, at around 60 mph (100 km/h). The track layout is set to change significantly over the next couple of years as Network Rail engineers set about straightening the line, as part of their overall plan to increase overall line speeds, it is planned that both platforms will be extended by up to 106 metres. This work was originally scheduled to be complete by no later than 2012. Work on the re-alignment and speed improvements was postponed and a decision on the solution is due in December 2016 with work complete by March 2019.
The railway through Leicestershire is not electrified therefore all services are operated by diesel trains. This is set to change by 2023 when a scheme to electrify the remainder of the Midland Main Line is to be completed, this along with faster line speeds, means the town will be around 60 minutes from the capital.