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EMR have recently advised of significant changes to our trains on Sundays from 15th December 2024. These result from completion of some engineering work south of Bedford such that all four tracks will be available from 09:00 on Sundays. At present, only two of the four tracks can be used, resulting in congestion and slowing journey times.
Many of our Sunday trains to London will be significantly speeded up, as follows: Southbound • MH 08:43 – London St Pancras 09:50 – (22-minute improvement) • MH 09:06 – London St Pancras 10:15 – (23-minute improvement) • MH 09:41 – London St Pancras 10:51 – (27-minute improvement) • MH 10:11 – London St Pancras 11:21 – (21-minute improvement) • MH 10:46 – London St Pancras 11:55 – (15-minute improvement) • MH 10:59 – London St Pancras 12:10 – (9-minute improvement) However, the 08:43 (currently 08:40) will be our first train to London. The present 07:43 and 08:10 will no longer run. EMR advise that this is because of Network Rail needing more engineering access to the lines in the Leicester, Nottingham and Derby areas. The loss of the first two trains is partly balanced by the faster journey time on the 08:40, so first arrival into London will be at 09:50 compared with 09:16 now, only 34 minutes later. However, earliest arrival times at the intermediate stations south of Kettering will be between 50 minutes and an hour later. For example, the first arrival time at Luton Airport Parkway from Market Harborough will be at 09:27, compared with 08:37 now. EMR advise that our first two trains “are currently significantly amended over 80% of the time, and are a mixture of buses for part of the journey, and / or re-timed and diverted”. Mind you, they are also capable of arriving early at St Pancras. Our experience is also that they are well used. Northbound
We met with EMR, including one of their timetable planners, on 9th September to discuss this. We put forward our concerns about the shortening of the operating day on Sunday, and the loss of capacity. The 07:43 is formed of 10 carriages, the 08:10 is five. We also expressed concern about the loss of early morning connectivity to the intermediate stations such as Luton Airport Parkway. There is the irony that, though the electrification is entirely for the purposes of upgrading and improving our line, and is now physically complete, we are faced with a trimming back of our Sunday train service! Do you use these first two trains south from Market Harborough on a Sunday? Let us know if you will be affected by this change. [email protected]  The electrification through Market Harborough finally went live on Sunday 28th July. Though we shan’t see electric trains in service here for a few months yet, the installation of the overhead line equipment between Kettering and Wigston South Junction is now complete. Testing remains to be done, both of the equipment and of the first of the new bi-mode Class 810 trains. Work also continues on the upgrading of the existing electrification between Bedford and London to accommodate the 125mph top speed of the new trains. Further information is available from the Network Rail website: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/east-midlands/midland-main-line-upgrade/ We look forward to the first of our new trains entering service, probably around the end of 2024 or early 2025.  Image: Network Rail
 Steady as she goes. An EMR Meridian train awaits departure from Market Harborough for St Pancras. Rail timetables changed from Sunday 2nd June 2024, for the period until 14th December. There is almost no change to our timetable, with very minor adjustments to the timings of some trains. (For example, the 08:28 to St Pancras on weekdays becomes the 08:27!)
The full timetable is available here: https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/timetables More importantly, major engineering work is planned, as follows: On the following dates, trains will be unable to run south of Luton or Bedford. A rail replacement bus operation will be in place; look for the amended timetables nearer the time.
Engineering work can also be cancelled. Please check before travel. EMR also advise that engineering work on the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines (King's Cross and Euston respectively) can mean more passengers travelling on EMR trains to and from London St Pancras. That can make them very busy! Please check for other train operators’ engineering work on nationalrail.co.uk or 03457 484950. Of course, we still wish to see reinstatement of early morning and late evening trains at Market Harborough once the electrification work is complete. Fingers crossed for at least some good news on this in December! The Government’s Office of Rail and Road publishes annual statistics including estimates of station usage. For the reporting year April 2022 to March 2023, these figures were released on 14th December 2023. Having had a turbulent year, with industrial disputes and engineering work frequently disrupting our train service, we were keen to see the level of usage of the station. The total for Market Harborough in the year was 762,792. This is a 43.6% increase on 2021-22’s total of 531,140. Given the disruption, this is a healthy increase and represents a good step back towards the pre-Covid peak of 898,058 in 2019-20. It made Market Harborough the 574th busiest station on the network, from a total of 2,578 stations in April 2023! The main destination or origin for journeys from or to Market Harborough was St Pancras.
The full statistics for the whole UK national rail network for 2022-23 can be found here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage/ Harborough Rail Users held their Annual General Meeting on Thursday 23rd November 2023, online on Zoom. Steve Jones was re-elected as Chair, and the other officers and Committee were elected for the forthcoming year. We were pleased to welcome two new members to our Committee. The priorities for the group were confirmed; these are:
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