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Affordable by Design Market Harborough station revisited
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n spring 2019 (issue 179, June 2019), Rail Engineer reported on the considerable work that was being undertaken at Market Harborough on the Midland main line; not just on the route itself but also on the station and surrounding area.
Since that visit, the site has changed significantly, with new tracks and platforms in place and in use, together with new extended car parking facilities. At the time of the May visit, the facilities were in interim use, quite a bit of the old station still giving service with purely construction contractor access to much of the new works. Late in December of 2019, Rail Engineer was invited back to view the works in an advanced state and also to understand the collaborative processes that had enabled this strategically vital portion of work on the Midland main line to approach successful completion. Contractor Amey and lead designer Arup, working together with Network Rail, have made huge progress from that first pre-blockade visit. The history of this location was covered in depth in the previous article, but it is worth having a brief review. The station
Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020
had previously been a junction, with cross country lines to the east and the west. Following closure of those routes in the 1960s, the main line geometry remained more or less unchanged, with a configuration appropriate to the previous junction geometry arrangements. The Midland main line is a route which has had mixed fortunes in terms of investment and speed improvements. The design and construction of the works at Market Harborough, which are led by Arup and Amey together with Network Rail, form part of an improvement programme to remove historic speed restrictions throughout the route. Market Harborough is one of the most significant of these with a linespeed of just 60mph - the aim is to increase this to 85mph (137km/h). However, the project scope is not just about linespeed, although an increase will reduce the section running time by about
PETER STANTON
30 seconds. It also includes a number of station improvements to provide passengers with better facilities.
Stakeholder interfaces The reconstruction and new works were encouraged and supported through the backing of many stakeholders, which would benefit from the improvements in both passenger facilities and train performance. As indicated, the significant driver was the Midland main line performance improvements programme, but the station itself was also in need of significant enhancement to suit its growing patronage and status as an important commuter station. To illustrate the strategic nature and influence of the work, Sheffield City Region, D2N2 (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) and Leicestershire local enterprise partnerships offered support to the scheme.
