The Anonymous Widower

Leicester Via Oakham And Melton Mowbray

I went to Leicester by taking a train to Peterborough and then took the Cross Country route via Oakham and Melton Mowbray stations.

Note the hot chocolate, which was one of the best I’d had in some time, except for another one on a train a couple of weeks ago.

I went by this route for three reasons.

• I wanted to have a look at the two stations of Oakham and Melton Mowbray, and although nothing special, they both look to be well-maintained provincial stations.
• I wanted to see whether the things I said in The Kettering To Oakham Line were valid.
• I also wondered if you could get a peek of the Welland Viaduct, before the two routes join South of Oakham. I didn’t!

I think that East Midlands Trains will have fun in this area, as electrification of the Midland Main Line starts to be finished.

The St. Pancras Problem

St. Pancras station must be a very inefficient station for East Midlands Trains.

• It has only four platforms, whereas they probably need a couple more.
• These platforms can take ten car trains, like 2+8 HSTs or two five-car Class 222 trains.
• Passenger access to the platforms is chronically bad and usually involves a lot more walking than say at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross or Paddington, where you exit from one end of the train onto a wide concourse.
• Double use of platforms must also be a nightmare for the company and its staff.
• New electric trains will increase the number of passengers wanting to travel.

I wonder how many passengers take trains that stop at Bedford and use Thameslink to go to London. Or perhaps drive to places like Grantham, Newark or Nuneaton and use alternative services.

One way to increase the efficiency of St. Pancras would be to run only full-length trains into the station.

But this would increase the problems of passenger flow, in one of my least favourite stations.

Two bullets will have to be bitten.

• The two escalators linking down from the East Midlands Trains station at St. Pancras, will have to be augmented to at least three and possibly four.
• Lifts must be provided so that passengers with heavy bags can descend to the main concourse and Thameslink, without walking fifty metres in the wrong direction.

To be fair, the station was designed before the trtemendous increase in passengers seen in the last few years.

But the architects knew that Thameslink was getting seventy percent larger and made no provision for proper links between the four sets of rail lines serving the station.

The Ten-Car Train Effects

If East Midlands Trains was only running full length, which will probably be ten-car trains into St. Pancras, it would mean they would have to be acceptable all over their network.

The trains could be two five-cars running as a pair and these could join and divide appropriately to open up new services.

For instance, a train to Nottingham could divide with one section going to Mansfield and the other to Lincoln.

Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield wouldn’t be a problem, but would Corby be able to fill a ten-car train, when as I found on A Trip To Corby, during the day they have difficulties filling a five-car one.

Onward From Corby

The solution is that trains from Corby should go on to Oakham and Melton Mowbray.

The area is seeing a lot of new housebuilding and would probably welcome a direct service to London.

The trains could either go North at Syston Junction to East Midlands Parkway and Sheffield or loop back South to Leicester.

I suspect that East Midlands Trains have their plan to expand their market and that the expansion of Corby station into a full two-platform through station is part of that plan.

Conclusion

Everything is seeing improvement in the East Midlands.

 

 

 

 

May 5, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Leicester