Melton Mowbray railway station

Melton Mowbray
Stanstead train at the platform.
Location
Place	Melton Mowbray
Local authority	Melton
Operations
Station code	MMO
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	0.225 million
2005/06 *	0.245 million
2006/07 *	0.233 million
2007/08 *	235,450
2008/09 *	244,370
2009/10 *	237,568
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Melton Mowbray from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Melton Mowbray railway station serves the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and operated by East Midlands Trains (EMT) train operating company (TOC).

The station is on the (as built) Syston and Peterborough Railway, the line is now part of the much bigger Birmingham to Peterborough Line. CrossCountry operate the majority of services as part of their Birmingham to Stansted Airport route. The station lies between Leicester and Peterborough stations.

The station was formerly known as Melton Mowbray Town to distinguish it from the now closed Melton Mowbray North on the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway, which closed to regular traffic in 1953.

The station has a ticket office which is staffed part time, a car park and help points for times where there are no staff present. 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 to replace the original which was life-expired. The refurbishment of the platforms retained their original size and means that previous plans to extend these by up to 13 metres by no later than 2012.^[1] will not go ahead in the original timescale.

Services

From Melton Mowbray there is an hourly service in both directions operated by CrossCountry, with some additional peak-hour trains. Services westbound to Birmingham via Leicester, Narborough, Hinckley, Nuneaton and Coleshill. Services eastbound to Stansted Airport or Cambridge via Oakham, Stamford, Peterborough, March, Ely and Audley End.

The station entrance

Despite managing the station, East Midlands Trains (EMT) only operates a limited number of services to the station. A single daily return service to London St Pancras commenced on the 27th of April 2009 running via Corby^[2] and is notable for being the first regular passenger service to cross the spectacular and historic Welland Viaduct on the Oakham to Kettering line since 1966. The company introduced a further return service from Derby via East Midlands Parkway (for East Midlands Airport) from May 2010. Further services may be introduced in the future.^[3] The daily services to/from London serves Oakham, Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, and Luton.

In addition, a handful of local services operate at either end of the day (mainly for train crew route knowledge purposes). An A.M. service runs from Nottingham to Norwich and P.M. service operates from Peterborough.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Leicester		CrossCountry Birmingham - Stansted Airport		Oakham
Loughborough		East Midlands Trains Nottingham - Norwich (via Loughborough) Limited Service		Oakham
East Midlands Parkway		East Midlands Trains Derby-London (via Corby) Limited Service		Oakham
Terminus

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. ^[4]

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Asfordby		Midland Railway Leicester London Road to Peterborough		Saxby
Grimston		Midland Railway Nottingham Midland to Kettering		Saxby
Terminus		Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway To Spalding, Kings Lynn, etc		Saxby

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 is currently being used for the testing of new stock for London underground built by Bombardier in Derby.

Trivia

Railway station lavatories have never been noted for the luxury of their appointments, but the toilet of the former first class waiting room had a hot-water pipe coursing through the seat.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Network Rail CP4 Delivery Plan 2009 Enhancements programme: statement of scope, outputs and milestones". Network Rail. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/6182_Enhancements%20Document%20Dec%202009.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 
2. ^ "Passengers from Melton Mowbray set to benefit from direct link to London". www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. 7 April 2009. http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/EMTrains/AboutUs/News/_PassengersfromMeltonMowbraysettobenefitfromdirectlinktoLondon_.htm. 
3. ^ "Rail service could run north of town". Northants Evening Telegraph. February 21, 2008. http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/Rail-service-could-run-north.3799253.jp. 
4. ^ Official Handbook of Stations, British Transport Commission, 1956
5. ^ Lambert, A, (2010) Lambert's Railway Miscellany Ebury Publishing.

External links

• Train times and station information for Melton Mowbray railway station from National Rail

Coordinates: 52°45′40″N 0°53′10″W / 52.761°N 0.886°W / 52.761; -0.886