The Midland Main Line upgrade is an ongoing upgrade to the Midland Main Line (MML), a major railway line in the United Kingdom.[1] There were a number of proposals to electrify the line over many years[2] but the 2012 proposal and announcement by the UK government was that it would include electrification of the railway line between Bedford, Wellingborough, Corby, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. The routes between Nottingham and Sheffield and the Erewash Valley line were not included at this time, only the line between Derby and Sheffield. The upgrade was part of the HLOS (High Level Output Specification) for Control Period 5 published by the UK Government in 2012.[3] This was also part of a rolling programme of railway electrification projects. To enable all the benefits of using electric traction, the line south of Bedford into London St Pancras is also being progressively upgraded including boosting the power supply.[4][5] Parts of the line have been classed as congested infrastructure hence another reason for the upgrade.[6]
The sections currently underway as of June 2024 are the electrification from Kettering to South Wigston as well as the upgrading of the overhead line equipment (OLE) south of Bedford to allow 125 mph (200 km/h) running.[5] These two sections are due to finish construction in summer 2024 and late 2025 respectively.
2012 Department for Transport plans for UK rail electrification by 2019 including MML electrification and Electric Spine (yellow/green).
^"Midland Main Line Upgrade". Network Rail. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
^"Review of Mainline Electrification" (PDF). Railway Archives. 1981. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
^"HLOS CP5" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 December 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
^Sherratt, ed. (June 2023). "125mph upgrade for MML OLE south of Bedford". Modern Railways. Vol. 80, no. 897. Key Publishing. pp. 22–23. ISSN 0026-8356.
^ ab"South of Bedford Upgrade". Network Rail. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
^"Midland Main Line Congested Infrastructure Capacity Enhancements plan" (PDF). Network Rail. 11 September 2015.
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