Nottingham railway station

Nottingham railway station, for some time known as Nottingham Midland or Nottingham City, is the principal railway station of the city of Nottingham and the Greater Nottingham area. It is served by East Midlands Trains, CrossCountry and Northern Rail; prior to 11 November 2007, it was served by Midland Mainline and Central Trains.

The first station
The first station in Nottingham was Nottingham Carrington Street railway station opened in May 1839 when the Midland Counties Railway opened the line from Nottingham to Derby and closed in 1848. This terminus station was situated on the west side of Carrington Street on the site now occupied by Nottingham Magistrates' Court. The original station gate posts still exist and form the pedestrian entrance to the Magistrates' Courts area.

The second station
In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway merged with two others into the Midland Railway and by 1848 it had outgrown this station and new lines to Lincoln had been opened. A new through station (1848–1903) was opened on Station Road on 22 May and was designed by the architect J E Hall of Nottingham. In the 1880s Nottingham station employed 170 men. Although attractive when it first opened, by the early 1900s the station was cramped, with only three platforms. A locomotive derailment knocked down a cast iron pillar, which brought down part of the train shed. This and the new Victoria station putting the Midland Railway to shame finally resulted in a scheme to re-build and expand.

In 1869 the Midland Railway purchased the West Croft Canal arm, filling it and building additional parallel tracks to south.

Current building
When the Great Central Railway opened its Victoria Station in 1900, the Midland Railway appointed Albert Edward Lambert, a local Nottingham architect, to rebuild the Midland station. Lambert had been the architect for the Nottingham Victoria railway station and consequently the two buildings shared many similarities in their design. The station was re-built largely on the same site as the Station Street station, but the entrance was relocated onto Carrington Street.

The first contract for the station buildings was awarded to Edward Wood and Sons of Derby on 23 January 1903, who were also awarded the contract for the buildings on platforms 1 and 2 on 16 September 1903. The contract for the buildings on platforms 4 and 5 was awarded to Kirk, Knight & Co of Sleaford on 18 June 1903, who were also responsible for building the parcels office (Forward House) on Station Street, which opened in November 1903. The structural steelwork and cast-ironwork was done by Handyside & Co. and the Phoenix Foundry, both of Derby.

The station was built in an Edwardian Baroque Revival style at a cost of £1 million (£0 as of 2024), and was described by the Evening News on the eve of its opening (16 January 1904) as a magnificent new block of buildings. The station was built using a mix of red brick, terracotta (which was used as a substitute for building stone) and faience (a glazed terracotta) with slate and glazed pitch roofs over the principal buildings. The carriage entrances have Art Nouveau wrought-iron gates

The station’s forebuildings were opened to passengers without any formal ceremony on 17 January 1904, although next day the Evening News reported that the platforms were still in a state of chaos and these were not expected to be ready for another nine months. However it did consider that ‘the result promises to be the provision for Nottingham of one of the most commodious and most convenient passenger stations in the country’.

The day began with the closure of the booking offices in the old station after the last tickets were issued for the 5:25 am London train and the new booking offices were opened in time to issue tickets for the 6:25 am Erewash Valley train. No attempt was made to exclude the public from the building and many took the opportunity to view the new station buildings. The Evening News commented on the public’s admiration of the style and elegance of the station approaches and booking hall and went on to describe the day’s events. In the morning, local juveniles swarmed into the station and spent their time playing boisterous games and dodging the duty policeman. Then later in the day, when the juveniles had finally been excluded, many top-hatted gents and their ladies came to promenade, no doubt adding some decorum to the proceedings, and to look at the architecturally pleasing buildings and general satisfaction was expressed. Finally as evening approached the gates were closed and none but passengers were allowed inside.

The Midland Railway always suffered the indignity that its rival the Great Central Railway crossed the top of Nottingham Midland station on a 170 ft bowstring girder bridge. This became redundant in 1967 and was finally dismantled in the early 1980s. Plans exist to build a new tramway bridge over the station on the same alignment.

Other Nottingham stations
The Great Central Railway station was Nottingham Victoria. The Great Northern Railway stations were the high level and low level stations in London Road. For a brief period (1967–1969) Nottingham Victoria station having closed, the service from Nottingham to Rugby Central used a reopened Arkwright Street station (previously closed in 1963).

Nottingham station today
The station has six platforms. Platforms 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are halved into A and B to accommodate two trains on each platform.

Platform 1 is used mainly for trains to Lincoln Central. Semi-fast services from London St Pancras terminate at this platform. Some CrossCountry trains services to Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central call at the platform also.

Platform 2 is a bay platform at the eastern end of the station which accommodates terminating trains from Newark and Grantham directions but mainly the hourly East Midlands Trains (EMT) service to Skegness via Boston.

Platform 3 is used by a variety of services, EMT local trains to Derby & Matlock, long distance EMT services to Norwich via Grantham, Peterborough, Ely & Thetford, early morning EMT services to London St. Pancras and Northern Rail services to Leeds via Sheffield & Barnsley.

Platform 4 is mainly used for the EMT fast service to London St. Pancras via Leicester and Market Harborough, including EMT local services to Mansfield Woodhouse and Worksop.

Platform 5 is commonly used for trains to Liverpool Lime Street, calling at Alfreton, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Warrington Central, Widnes and Liverpool South Parkway and by CrossCountry trains to Birmingham New Street.

Platform 6 is commonly used for Ivanhoe Line trains to Leicester and also by certain Birmingham and Cardiff CrossCountry trains. Station Street tram stop is connected to the station concourse via a pedestrian bridge. The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving. It is in the same area as Attenborough, Beeston, Bulwell, Netherfield and Carlton stations.

Redevelopment
The station has benefited from a multi-million-pound refurbishment and redevelopment; plans for which were unveiled by junior government minister Norman Baker on 5 October 2010. Under the scheme, the station's porte-cochère has be made vehicle-free, and the station's Grade II* listed buildings restored. The redevelopment also includes the construction of another platform, more shops, and the construction of a bridge to carry Nottingham Express Transit trams over the top of the station.

Funding
The redevelopment was initially estimated to cost £67 million. East Midlands Development Agency stated they would contribute £9.5 million to the project, however had to reduce theis amount following government cuts. In July 2009, the then Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, gave conditional approval for the city council to use funds raised from their controversial "Workplace Parking Levy" to contribute to the redevelopment.

The final funding was reorganised to be around £60 million: Network Rail contributing £41 million, Nottingham City Council £14.8 million, EMDA £2.1 million, East Midlands Trains £1.6 million, and the Rail Heritage Trust giving £0.5 million.

Station Masterplan
In 2001 the architects Building Design Partnership (BDP) were appointed as the lead consultants,  using the same team which had redeveloped Manchester Piccadilly based on an estimate of £550,000  and in cooperation with Posford Rail, MVA, Jones Lang LaSalle and Bovis Lend Lease.


 * Stage 1 of the Nottingham Station Masterplan cost £99,960 and was launched at Loxley House on 19 July 2002. The main stakeholders at the time were Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Central Trains, Midland Mainline, Nottingham Development Enterprise, Nottingham Regeneration Limited and the EMDA which together acted as the Nottingham Railway Station Steering Group.
 * State 2a of the masterplan preparation was budgeted to cost £59,940.63 and also to be undertaken by BDP.

BDP engaged Tuffin Ferraby Taylor to undertake surveys of all elements of the station dating from before 1918. As well as an integrated NET tram station above platform 6, the masterplan included an additional concourse, and safeguarding for an additional platform.

Car park
Between 2011 and 2012, a new multi-storey car park (MSCP) was constructed between Platform 6 and Queen's Road, over the western half of the station's existing car park. It was built by Vinci Construction. Despite protests about the car park taking natural light from the station, work began in March 2011 and the car park was officially opened on 14 May 2012.

The initial car park design had been put on hold during 2008 after being described as a "chicken coop". The final design for the car park has 2,107 coloured metal sheets on the outside, formed of 2.1-millimetre-thick copper and stainless steel (1.5 mm stainless, 0.6 mm "Luvata" Copper). These panels are fixed to the MSCP using 8000 cleats fixed to pre-cast channels in the concrete structure. The new car park building has five storeys and was designed to have space for 950 cars.

Tram bridge
The Nottingham Express Transit tram line was planned to cross the station on the line of the original Great Central Railway viaduct that had been closed in the 1970s; crossing from Station Street, over both the station and Queen's Road. Construction of the tram bridge started work on 10 April 2012. The tram bridge design is a Warren truss design made of 508 to 711 mm diameter steel tubes. The main bridge is 14.530 m wide between the truss centrelines, with two equal spans of 52.120 m. Walkways 2.4 to 3.0 m wide run down each side of the tram tracks.

Remodelling
Schemes costing £19 million (in 2007) and then £14 million (in 2008) were proposed. . Remodelling and re-signalling costing £11.6 million was approved on 15 May 2009 by the Network Rail Investment Board, and will take place as part of Control Period 4 (CP4) running from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014. Nottingham station will be partially closed for ten weeks during 2013 for the track and signalling work. During the blockade, the western end of the station will be closed to trains for 37 days and the eastern end for 10 days.

Platform 4 has been split to create two platforms. All four tracks at the western end will have bi-directional railway signalling allowing a better choice of non-conflicting routes. These lines will be referred to as Line A, Line B, Line C and Line D. Although all lines will be directional, their intended use will be segregated, with services towards Sheffield and Mansfield focused on the northern pair of tracks, and services to Derby and Leicester focused on the southern pair of tracks. Line-speeds for trains arriving from Chesterfield and the Robin Hood Line will be increased from 35 mph to 50 mph. On 7 March 2012 Network Rail requested formal "network change" acceptance from the train operating companies.

On-site preparation works began in September 2011, with all new signal structures installed by June 2013 followed by the "Nottingham blockade" itself lasting from July 2013, until handover in September 2013. The work is spread from Beeston, past Mansfield Junction, Nottingham West Junction and to Nottingham East Junction. The blockade is designed to cover renewing 5.9 km of track and adding or renewing 14 sets of pointwork.

Footbridge
Halfway along the platforms is an overhead footbridge running from Station Street (at the north) and the tram stop link, over station platforms 1–5 to platform 6 and car parking facilities at Queen's Road (at the south). The footbridge carries Footpath 28, the only traffic-free crossing over the Midland Main Line in Nottingham. Footpath 28 was previously diverted from the demolished footbridge 21 to the present footbridge 20 B during the 1990s. The original route formed part of the "Trent Bridge Footway" carrying the public between the centre of Nottingham and the river crossing at Trent Bridge. In 2004 Nottingham City Council stated that right of way over the footbridge would be closed following the completion of a multi-storey car park.

Alternative pavement improvement works were scheduled for Queens Road in February 2009. During 2008–2012 BPR Architects submitted designs for automated ticket gate (ATG) barrier installations at St Pancras, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham station concourse plus both ends of Nottingham footbridge 20 B. BPR's design included four ATG barriers on the north end of the footbridge itself plus a new enclosure and four barriers between the car park and platform 6 at the south end. A procedure to permanently stop-up the right-of-way commenced on 19 March 2010,  A planning application for barriers was filed on 29 March 2010 and withdrawn again on 10 May 2010. Following a public inquiry held during 8–9 November 2011, the stopping up order was denied; the inspector summing up:  Footpath 28 is unique and offers an experience which the alternative, replacement, route cannot – a traffic free route within the city which in addition provides a convenient link for a large number of users to and from residential areas, work places and other facilities. It provides a short but valued opportunity for pedestrians to get away from trafficked routes, with the added amenity value of an historic environment. On balancing the merits and demerits of the stopping up order, I find that the disadvantages and loss likely to arise as a result of the stopping up of the footpath to members of the public generally are such that permanent closure of Footpath 28 to the public is not justified. Thus I conclude that the Order should not be confirmed.

Services
Network Rail plan to spend £100m on track improvement schemes on the Midland Main Line, which will cut the journey time from 104 minutes to 90 minutes by 2011 between London and Nottingham.

Current off-peak services from the station include:


 * 1tph to London St Pancras (fast) via East Midlands Parkway, Leicester and Market Harborough (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to London St Pancras (slow) via Loughborough, Leicester, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Liverpool Lime Street via Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly and Warrington Central (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Norwich via Grantham, Peterborough and Ely (East Midlands Trains)
 * 2tph to Mansfield Woodhouse, with 1tph continuing to Worksop (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Skegness via Boston (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Leicester via Loughborough (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Lincoln via Newark Castle (East Midlands Trains)
 * 1tph to Matlock via Derby (East Midlands Trains)
 * 2tph to Birmingham New Street via Derby with 1tph continuing to Cardiff Central via Newport (CrossCountry)
 * 1tph to Leeds via Sheffield (Northern Rail)

There is also an early morning service in one direction only to Bournemouth via Birmingham New Street, Reading and Southampton provided by CrossCountry. This service departs at 06:37.

Glasgow Trains are looking into possibilities of running a direct service from Nottingham to Glasgow Central. Their plans have yet to be approved, however.

Trivia
Punk Rock band The Clash played a gig at Nottingham station as part of their 'Back to Basics' busking tour in the mid-eighties. The gig took place at midnight.

In 2004 AEA Technology on behalf of the Rail Safety and Standards Board took samples from the platform 6 trackbed as part of a research brief into the effects of "Discharge of toilet waste from trains onto the track".