Sitting on the Midland Main Line roughly 99 miles north of London St Pancras, Leicester railway station connects the city directly to Sheffield, Nottingham, and the capital. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway and owned by Network Rail, with train services operated by both East Midlands Railway and CrossCountry. By passenger numbers, it is the busiest station in Leicestershire, the second busiest in the East Midlands, and the fifth busiest across the Midlands as a whole.
A History Going Back to 1840
The station first opened on 5 May 1840, built by the Midland Counties Railway under a contract awarded to Waterfield and Smith for just under £15,000. A train of four first-class and six second-class carriages, hauled by a steam engine called the Leopard, arrived from Nottingham on 4 May 1840 for its inaugural run. The station went through several name changes over the years – known simply as Leicester at first, then Leicester Campbell Street from 1867, and Leicester London Road from 1892. It was fully rebuilt in 1894 and again in 1978. After the closure of Leicester Central station on 5 May 1969, the station was renamed simply Leicester.
Leicester’s Wider Railway Past
Leicester has a longer railway history than many cities of its size. The Leicester and Swannington Railway opened a terminus at West Bridge on the western side of the city in 1832, making Leicester one of the earliest places in England to be served by rail. That company was later absorbed by the Midland Railway. At its peak, the city had seven railway stations in total – or eight if the two separate West Bridge sites are counted individually. Alongside the current station, Leicester was once served by Leicester Belgrave Road on the Great Northern Railway, Leicester Central on the Great Central Railway, Humberstone Road on the LMS, and West Bridge. There was also a short-lived halt at Welford Road, open from 1874 to 1918, which gave access to the Cattle Market but only allowed passengers to disembark, not to board. West Bridge closed to passengers in 1928, Belgrave Road in 1962, and Central in 1969, leaving the current station as the sole railway link for the city.