Adjournment debate in Parliament on Midland Main Line electrification

Questions remain about the government's exact plans for electrification of the Midland Main Line (MML) through Market Harborough.  Though the section from Bedford to Kettering and Corby is confirmed for completion in 2019, there are worries that Phase 2, from Kettering via Market Harborough to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield, due in 2023, may not go ahead.  Nicky Morgan, MP for Loughborough, is so concerned that she is using an adjournment debate in the Commons on 7th November to seek an assurance from the Transport Minister that the scheme will still go ahead.  Decisions need to be made quickly as the InterCity 125 High Speed Trains, wonderful though they are, need to be replaced or expensively modernised by the end of 2019.  Nicky Morgan made the very valid point that if the MML is not electrified, it will be the last inter-city line to London not to be electrified.  'What does that say about the importance that we in the country attach to the Midlands?', she asked.  BBC Radio Leicester's Breakfast programme covered the story with a reporter at Market Harborough station interviewing HRU and passengers about it.  The Department for Transport stated that the national rail enhancement programme remains in place.