Kettering railway station

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Kettering

Location

Place

Kettering

Local authority

Kettering (borough)

Operations

Managed by

Midland Main Line

Platforms in use

Annual Passenger Usage

2004/05 **

0.933 million

History

Key dates

Opened 1857

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
U V W X Y Z

Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Kettering.

* 2002/03 Disclaimer
** 2004/05 Disclaimer

UK Rail Portal

Kettering railway station serves the town of Kettering in Northamptonshire, England. It lies on the Midland Main Line, 115 km (72 miles) north of London St. Pancras and is served primarily by slower Midland Mainline Class 222 "Meridian" services, with HST services at peak times. It is to the south-west of the town centre.

The station was opened in May 1857 by the Midland Railway on a line intended to link the Midland to the Great Northern Railway at Hitchin, although the Midland later gained its own London terminus at St Pancras railway station. It was designed by C H Driver, with particularly fine "pierced grill" cast ironwork on the platforms. Although it was altered between 1879 and 1884 when the line was quadrupled and again n 1896, it is one of best remaining examples of Midland architecture.

In the 1970s the glass canopies became a maintenance headache for British Rail, who proposed to remove the tops of the cast iron columns and replace the glass canopies with plastic sheeting. Kettering Civic Society objected to the plans and the canopies and columns were reprieved, later to be sympathetically restored by Railtrack in 2000.

[edit] Services

There is generally a half-hourly service to London St. Pancras (southbound) and to either Derby or Nottingham via Leicester (northbound) operated by Midland Mainline Meridian trains. With occasional rush hour Inter City 125 (HST) trains stopping at Kettering towards London St. Pancras, Nottingham or Sheffield.

[edit] Corby

Just to the north of Kettering is the junction for the Kettering and Manton Line, which leads through Corby to Manton Junction where it joins the Leicester to Peterborough Line. This provided an alternative route for expresses to Nottingham via Old Dalby.

Passenger services were withdrawn from this line in the 1960s, though it remains open for freight. In 1987 Network South East experimentally introduced a shuttle service between Kettering and a new station in the nearby town of Corby. The service was however withdrawn a few years later. Corby is often quoted as being the largest town in western Europe with no rail station. There is a campaign on to have the service reinstated. In the mean time Midland Mainline runs a shuttle bus from Corby to Kettering station. Occasionally the line is used as a diversionary route when the route between Kettering and Leicester is closed for whatever reason.