East Midlands Trains passengers have benefited from over £1.5 million worth of improvements at their train stations over the last year. 

Investment in new and improved facilities at 23 different stations on the East Midlands Trains network has delivered a wide range of benefits for passengers including around 800 additional cycle spaces, better waiting facilities, new seating and refurbished toilets. 

Larger scale investment has seen the complete refurbishment of ticket offices at Lincoln and Market Harborough and additional ticket machines at Nottingham and Sheffield.

The range of enhancements include:

·      Improved cycle facilities with extra pods, stands or spaces at Alfreton, Bottesford, Chesterfield, Kettering, Mansfield, Market Harborough, Matlock, Skegness and Wellingborough
·      New/refurbished waiting shelters at Ancaster, Belper, Newark Castle and Radcliffe.  The waiting rooms at Boston and Market Harborough have also been refurbished
·      New platform seating at Belper, Kettering, Leicester, Lincoln, Sheffield, Stamford and Wellingborough
·      Opening of new refurbished ticket offices at Market Harborough and Lincoln
·      Refurbished toilets at Boston, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Skegness and Stamford with two new accessible toilets installed in the main concourse at Leicester
·      New ticket vending machines at Syston and extra machines installed at Nottingham and Sheffield
·      Tactile maps installed at Chesterfield and Kettering
·      Other improvements delivered for passengers include:
- improvements to the station entrance and forecourt at Bottesford and Chesterfield
- improving the link bridge between Leicester station and car park
- new CCTV and signage at Kidsgrove
- new anti-slip surfacing on the stairs at Sileby
- new accessible overbridge at Uttoxeter

Many of the schemes have been delivered in partnership with Network Rail and local authorities across the network through the National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP), ATOC cycle fund and the Department for Transport’s Access for All Scheme.

Andy Moore, Head of Stations for East Midlands Trains, said: “As well as working on the larger station schemes, such as Nottingham, our teams have been busy working on a range of improvements to stations right across our network. 

“We’ve invested over £1.5 million over the past year to deliver better station facilities with extra bike spaces, better toilets and improved waiting areas.  We’ve also completed a number of accessibility improvement schemes providing accessible toilets, better station entrances and tactile maps to help visually impaired passengers find their way around our stations more easily.

“This has been a great start to the year, and we’re sure passengers will welcome this significant investment in our stations.  There’s still plenty to come for the year ahead however, with the major improvements at Nottingham, opening of three major new cycle hubs, Kettering station’s First Class Lounge and further station accessibility improvements to look forward to.

“We’d like to thank our partners at the Department for Transport, Network Rail, the Community Rail Partnerships and local authorities for their ongoing support in delivering these improvements for our passengers.”

Phil Verster, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, added: “Stations have a vital role to play in our communities.  They are gateways to the towns and cities they serve and the first impression passengers have of our network. 

“Over the past five years passengers at 89 East Midlands Trains stations have benefitted from improvements worth around £5.2 million. We look forward to furthering our successful partnership with East Midlands Trains to deliver even more improvements in the year ahead.”

The Department for Transport announced yesterday that Alfreton, Kidsgrove and Market Harborough have been granted funding from the Access for All fund to deliver step-free access at each of these stations by 2019.