East Midlands Parkway railway station



East Midlands Parkway railway station is located north of Ratcliffe-on-Soar on the Midland Main Line in the East Midlands of England. It provides park and ride facilities for rail passengers on the routes from Leicester to Derby and Nottingham. It is also the closest station to East Midlands Airport, some 4 mi away.

The site of the station is in southwest Nottinghamshire, about 500 m from the border with Leicestershire and 1 km from that with Derbyshire, between the stations at Loughborough, Long Eaton and Attenborough. The initial shuttle bus service linking the station and the airport has ceased. The main station building and the 850 vehicle car park are to the west of the line, opposite Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. Road access is via the A453, which provides a link to the nearby (three-minute drive) M1 motorway.

The Midland Main Line is not electrified north of Bedford; therefore, all services are operated by diesel trains. This is set to change by 2019 when a scheme to electrify the remainder of the line is due to be completed. This, along with increased line speeds, means that the station will be under 80 minutes from the capital.

Description
East Midlands Parkway is located near the village of Ratcliffe on Soar in Nottinghamshire, close to the River Trent where the boundaries of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire meet. Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station towers over the railway. The station is on the Midland Main Line, which runs from London to Nottingham and Sheffield, 118 mi from the London terminus at St Pancras. Just north of the station is Ratcliffe Junction, where the lines to Nottingham and Sheffield (via Derby) diverge. There are four platforms, two serving the western, "fast" lines, and two serving the eastern, "slow" lines.

Services
Fears have been raised by various bodies, notably East Midlands Airport, about the service pattern proposed for the new station.

Donington Park motor racing circuit is close by and the owners have expressed their desire for spectators to use the station and coaches to the circuit. The owners are also in support of any future light rail transport to East Midlands Airport itself.

All trains serving the station are operated by EMT using InterCity 125 (HST), Class 222 Meridian, or Sprinter (Classes 153/156/158) rolling stock. The current service pattern from London sees two trains per hour, both leaving within seven minutes of each other.

History
Building work commenced on the new £25.5m station on 19 December 2007 and was due to be completed by 14 December 2008, but the station did not finally open until 26 January 2009. It was designed by MacKellar Architecture Limited.

The TOC (Train Operating Company) Midland Mainline was, until October 2006, responsible for the project, which remained in the planning stages for several years for the want of a small piece of land needed for the project. Responsibility was then transferred to Network Rail which anticipated expenditure of £5m in 2006/07 and £8m in 2007/08.

In its first year of operation the station was used by over 250,000 passengers.

Controversy
The construction of the station has been controversial; Midland Mainline sought Transport and Works Act (T&WA) powers to compulsorily purchase the land for the station. However, private agreements with the relevant landowners were agreed for the land required and the compulsory purchase order powers were therefore not used. Objections to the station were received during the planning and T&WA process from E.ON UK (the owners of some of the land), Friends of the Earth, Nottinghamshire County Council, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

People in nearby towns, notably Loughborough, voiced their concerns that the opening of the station could lead to the reduction in the number of trains stopping there, although this was denied by former operator Midland Mainline. Another concern was the possible withdrawal of the existing bus service from Loughborough station to East Midlands Airport. In the event, a service from Loughborough to the airport (now extended to start from Leicester) is still running; however, since 25 April 2010, it has ceased to serve Loughborough railway station. As a result there are no longer any direct late-night or early-morning bus services between the railway station and the town centre, with only a limited (every 40 minutes) service operating on Sundays.

First year
To mark the first year of operation of the station, East Midlands Trains offered unlimited travel from the station for the day on Saturday 30 January 2010 under the promotional 'Red Dot Day' banner. The 850 space car park was full for the first time since the station opened and 2,787 passengers travelled. The station saw 182,412 journeys in its first full year of operation.

Criticism
The station has been criticised as being in the wrong place, and has attracted just over a third of the projected number of passengers.

Facilities
East Midlands Parkway is a staffed station with four platforms and a ticket office, which is open 06:00–19:30 on Mondays to Saturdays and 07:30–19:30 on Sundays. Other facilities include:
 * Ticket vending machine
 * Fast ticket machine
 * Cafe
 * Lifts to all platforms
 * Waiting room
 * Pay phone
 * Cycle storage
 * Accessible toilets
 * Taxi rank
 * Business lounge

East Midlands Parkway is one of the greenest stations built in the United Kingdom. It uses a ground-source heating system was built using locally-sourced and recycled materials.

As of late 2009, East Midlands Parkway is a penalty fare station, so a valid ticket or permit to travel must be shown when requested.

Multi-modal
From 30 March 2009, the station has been used as an interchange station for combined multi-modal journeys Megabus-branded services run by Stagecoach (the operators of both East Midlands Trains and of Megabus). The MegabusPlus services transport passengers from cities in the north of England to East Midlands Parkway, where passengers transfer to rail for the service to London.

Routes operated under the MegabusPlus brand are to/from:
 * London St Pancras International - Hull via Scunthorpe
 * London St Pancras International - Hull via York, Doncaster and Castleford
 * London St Pancras International - Bradford via Huddersfield and Halifax