Good progress continues with the electrification of the line from Kettering to Market Harborough.  On 15th March, several overhead support posts were installed behind Platform 1, and other work continues around the station.  The picture below shows one of the masts being lifted into position.
(Photo: Steve Jones)

Network Rail will soon be starting work on the new toilet block and waiting room at Market Harborough station.  This is long awaited, and further information can be found here:
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/better-facilities-at-market-harborough-station-this-may

Users of Market Harborough station will have noticed evidence of electrification really getting under way.  At the time of writing, overhead line masts have been installed just north of the platforms, and through Little Bowden.  Lengthy stretches of the line through Braybrooke and most of the way to Kettering now have at least some evidence of electrification, whether that be the mast support bases, masts themselves and, in many cases, the gantry brackets that will carry the wires.  The power supply substation at Braybrooke is also very much under construction.  
The Government’s Integrated Rail Plan promises electrification of the entire Midland Main Line, right through to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.  We now trust that once the electrification has reached Market Harborough, it can swiftly continue towards Leicester.   

Work on the long-awaited electrification of the main line from Kettering to Market Harborough officially started on Saturday 11th December.  Much preparatory work had already taken place, including cutting back of lineside vegetation that might interfere with the overhead lines, plus a start on the power supply substation at Braybrooke, just outside Market Harborough.  The first job for the electrification teams, who are operating out of site compounds at Rushton, Braybrooke and behind Platform 1 at Market Harborough, is to install the tubular steel piles in the ground to support the overhead line masts.  Several of these were already in place at Braybrooke on 11th December.  Work continues on this operation, mostly overnight plus some weekend working, until January.
Once complete, the electrification and power supply upgrade will enable the new Aurora trains to operate on electric power south from Market Harborough when they are introduced into service in 2023.  By then, we hope the decision to continue beyond Market Harborough will have been made, in accordance with the Government’s promise in its Integrated Rail Plan, published on 18th November 2021, to electrify the whole Midland Main Line. 

The electrification of the railway between Bedford and Corby is due to come into service with the new timetable on 15th May.  There has long been a desire to see the electrification of the whole Midland Main Line, and the first stage of that, from Kettering to Market Harborough, is now in the early stages of implementation.  Vegetation clearance along the lineside from Kettering is well under way, with trees being either felled or trimmed back where they are too close to the line and the future overhead wires.  Work on the new substation that will feed the electrification has also started.  This is near Braybrooke, where the National Grid high-voltage power line crosses the railway. The substation is due to be completed by autumn 2022, in time for the electrification itself to be installed.