Midland Mainline, established in 1996 and operated by National Express, the long-distance coach company, is a train operating company in the United Kingdom's privatised rail network. It operated between London St Pancras in the south and Yorkshire and the East Midlands in the north. Its principal routes are to Nottingham and Sheffield, but all the stations shown below are served. The company operates a mixture of old High Speed Train/InterCity 125 sets and more modern Turbostar multiple units, both of which are extremely rapid. The merits of the service include free tea and coffee on the Turbostars, no smoking throughout all trains, and a commitment to properly integrated bus links, as you would expect from a coach company.
Less wonderful is the lack of maintenance on certain parts of the rolling stock - the smoking sections of HST sets being converted to non-smoking simply by ripping out the ashtrays, for example. The staff also have a bad, bad habit of letting trains run late, and not announcing the fact or apologising. This can lead to a great deal of aggravation for passengers, who
miss connections without knowing why. Station staff who are asked about this
deficieny tend to be as dismissive as possible of the passengers' problems, to the extent of denying responsibility for missed connections. They are, however, better on other aspects of the Passenger's Charter, and interpret ticket restrictions generously where appropriate. A recent innovation is allowing passengers with season tickets to use them for part of journeys on express trains, even if the train does not stop at the edge of the season ticket's validity.
Addendum: In March 2003, Midland Mainline set up an exchange library at Derby station, composed of books found on its trains. Passengers are encouraged to exchange books they have finished with for ones in the library that they have not read. The openingof the facility was timed to coincide with World Book Day, on March 6, 2003.
Leeds
|
Matlock Wakefield Westgate
\ | Scarborough
Matlock | /-----York-----/
Bath Doncaster
\ Barnsley--\ |
Cromford \|
\ |
Whatstandwell Meadowhall
\ |
Ambergate Sheffield
\ |
\ Chesterfield
| / \
Burton- /-------/ \
on- / \
Trent Belper Alfreton
| | |
Willington | |
\ | Langley Mill
\ Duffield |
\ | Nottingham
\ | /
\ | /
\ | Beeston
\ | /
Derby /
\ /
Long /
Eaton /
\ /
\ /
v
Loughborough
|
Leicester
|
Market Harborough
|
Kettering (for Corby)
|
Wellingborough
|
Bedford
|
Luton
|
Luton Airport Parkway
|
London St Pancras
Connections to London Underground Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City, Northern, Victoria and Piccadilly Lines at St Pancras.
Connections from St Pancras, via King's Cross, to Thameslink, GNER and WAGN services. Other Thameslink connections at Luton, Luton Airport Parkway and Bedford. HullTrains connections at King's Cross and Doncaster. National and international air services from East Midlands Airport (Loughborough and Luton Airport (Parkway).