Leicester City Centre
This Google Map shows the relationship between Leicester station and the City Centre.
Leicester Station And The City Centre
The station is in the South-East corner and the big High Cross Shopping Centre and the cathedral are in the North-West corner.
Leicester City’s stadium is off the map to the South-West.
I could just about walk it to the Shopping Centre from the station, but it was at the limit of my range with the faciitis in my right foot.
I took these pictures as I walked between the station and the centre.
If there was a city, that needs a people mover of some sort between the two locations, it is Leicester.
All European cities would run a tram and with the latest technological developments, the tram would now be battery powered as in Seville and soon to be seen in Birmingham. On such a short distance, it doesn’t even have to have rails, but could be a rubber-tyred, double-ended articulated bus. I once saw a concept like this is in a Wrightbus presentation.
I made one big mistake on my visit to Leicester.
I was intending to go to the cathedral and have some lunch, which I did in Carluccio’s in the High Cross Shopping Centre.
As I was hungry, I had the lunch first and found that the shopping centre has been designed, so you have to go back through it to get anywhere.
As I didn’t want to buy anything except lunch, that would have been a pointless exercise.
So after wasting twenty minutes walking in the wrong way, I was running too late to visit the cathedral.
So on your visit to Leicester visit the cathedral first and if you’re in a hurry and want something to eat afterwards, don’t go in the shopping centre.
A properly-designed people mover going from the station to the pedestriansed central are and on to the cathedral would not only solve my problem, but it would surely attract a lot more visitors to the city to visit the cathedral and Kind Richard.
The one thing that a people-mover in Leicester, doesn’t have to be, is a fully-fledged tram with overhead wires. That is so nineteenth century for short routes in city centres.
Get it right in Leicester and I can think of several other towns and cities, that could use such a system.
Leicester Station
I took these pictures as I passed through Leicester station.
It has a just slightly less than magnificent façade, but the problems are more with the tracks and layout of the platforms.
This Google Map shows the station from above.
Leicester Station
There are various plans for the future of Leicester station.
I will now speculate.
My train back from Leicester didn’t stop at all and took six minutes over the hour.
The biggest problem on the journey was that it was the second train into the platform at St. Pancras station and I had to walk miles to get off the platform and then the adjacent escalators were set to up. The more I use St. Pancras, the more I realise what a disaster for passengers it is.
Nearly a billion pounds was spent to create se by A Fur Coat And No Knickers Station. Everybody concerned with the design and rebuilding of the station, should be sent to put a railway on St. Helena.
But that has nothing to do with Leicester, which has a station that generally works well.
I believe that electrification will transform journeys between London and Leicester.
Bombardier have stated that their new Aventra trains will be 125 mph high-speed trains, that will also handle commuters and could have on-board energy storage. I wrote about that in A High Speed Train With An IPEMU-Capability.
These trains could do the following.
- Go between Leicester and London in an hour.
- They might even be able to do this with a single stop at Bedford for Thameslink, so commuters could avoid St. Pancras.
- Probably be eight, ten, or even twelve cars long, so that they fit the inadequate platforms at St. Pancras better.
- They would have a modern interior, that satisfied the needs of those on business or leisure journeys and regular commuters.
But as the trains could be IPEMUs with an on-board energy storage capability, Leicester station might not be electrified and the trains would use batteries for stopping and restarting in the station. Think of the disruption and construction costs that would save. The freight loop down the East side of the station could be electrified, so that electric locomotives could pull freight trains through the station.
The April 2016 Edition of Modern Railways has an article entitled Leicester Remodelling Recommended For CP6. This is mentioned.
- Grade separation at Wigston North Junction, where services to Nuneaton branch off South of Leicester.
- Improvements at Syston Junction, where services to Peterborough branch off North of Leicester.
- Four tracking between the junctions.
- New platforms at Leicester station.
- Better separation of services.
- A second platform at Syston station.
Cost is given as up to a billion pounds.
This map clipped from Wikipedia shows the rail lines through Leicester.
Leicester Lines
Cost could be saved by not electrifying between the two junctions if IPEMUs were to be used on the Midland Main Line.
Intriguingly though, as it is unlikely that the Birmingham to Peterborough Line will be electrified in the near future, a short length of electrification through Leicester would enable the cross-country route from Birmingham to Peterborough and on to Stansted Airport to be run using the same trains with an IPEMU capability, that could be working the Midland Main Line.
Leicester also needs better connection between the city centre and the station.
I think it needs some form of battery tram as in Seville, shuttling down Granby Street.
I say more about this in Leicester City Centre.
The Anonymous Widower 