Yeah, this is a pretty cool station, but in a way it is sort of like a lot of the major stations…read morethat you encounter along the British rail network. Yeah, I have to admit that it is pretty cool, and the trains do come along here quite regularly. In fact, that they come through here regularly is actually pretty cool because it means that I don't get stuck in one place. Also, it is a relatively short walk to the main part of the town.

Negative review for Leicester train station. I love an East Midlands train station as much as the…read morenext man, but this experience really put a disgusting taint on my overall opinion. Me and my mates were on our way back to Cambridge after what I can only describe as a 'mammoth' day out in Wigan, and we had to change in Leicester to get on our penultimate train. Unfortunately, as we were absolutely legging it around the station in order to assure we made our 15-minute connection, we were confronted. Some bloke said that if we didn't get out of his sight then he would 'tonk us to oblivion' and 'smash the ever-living ****' out of us. We felt quite unsafe and two of my friends had to be restrained on platform 3. We resultantly almost missed our train. However, at the end of the day I have been here twice and the first time was bliss. The facilities are good and match the demand given how many major destinations are available to directly travel to. Decent destination, could be more central but obviously can't be moved because that would be arguably overly industrial.

East Midlands Parkway is located next to radcliffe on soar power station in Leicestershire,…read moreEngland. It is the newst rail station to open in the country, and is operated by East Midlands Trains, with services to Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds and London St Pancras Directly, with connections at Derby, Nottingham and Leicester to other towns and cities accross the UK. East Midlands Parkway is located between Long Eaton and Loughtborough Train Stations and has a bus service to East Midlands Airport twice an hour. East Midlands Parkway opened on the 26th January, and is planned to expand when rails are upgraded alongside the station, allowing more services to stop. Overall a great station to travel from.

Like my first thought was that this looked like a major station, but honestly, it is a major…read morestation considering Nottingham happens to be a major city, so of course it is going to be a major station. It was pretty good though because there are lots of facilities here, though it is a shame that you can't actually get the tram from here, though the tram does run nearby, I just couldn't see where the stop was (and it certainly wasn't out the front of the station).

Arriving off the train causes some confusion as there are two footbridges to leave the station…read more One is an older footbridge that now has an exit to the tram, this is halfway down the platform The second leads to the main train building. This is great building with high ceilings and authentic original designs worth a look if you have some time at the station.

The station is very convenient for me - just an £8 pound taxi ride from home. It is not the best in…read moreconnectivity unless you want to go to Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham or a few other cities - Plymouth, Bristol for example. However to get to London you can just take one stop to Tamworth and then change for direct to London - that is my plan today. The station is not really very inviting but they do have a small news and coffee shop and (very important on a cold winters day like today!) a heated waiting room serving both platforms. In summary - thank goodness for little stations like this that connect you with everywhere in England, Scotland and Wales affordable and without having to drive! Review #92 2019

Burton Upon Trent is located between Derby an Birmingham. Burton Upon Trent rail station is…read moreoperated and managed by Cross Country Trains, which operate frequent services between Nottingham and Birmingham New Street / Cardiff Central. Crosscountry services run twice every hour to Nottingham, and once hourly to Birmingham, and once hourly to Cardiff Central. Cross Country high speed services to the South West, and th North East stop at the station, however these are less freqent, and occur mosty during the morning and evening commute.

East Midlands Railway, owned by Abellio is the replacement for the similarly named East Midlands…read moreTrains, operating the East Midlands railway franchise. Many of its' routes go into London St Pancras while it also serves cities such as Derby, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, York and even Norwich. While it provides slow routes compared to rivals travelling from Manchester to Liverpool, or Manchester to Sheffield it is the main route provider on many other occasions including Manchester to Norwich. I am impressed with some of the immediate changes with the new franchise - The new livery is smarter and looks good as I noticed the former East Midlands Trains to just become ugly, dirty and outdated so that really is an improvement to the network. I do think it's a shame that many trains haven't been fully refurbished, however. - Delay Repay has been extended to cover a 15-minute delay rather than the industry average and the only legal amount they'd have to cover of 30 minutes anyway. Other new franchises including Avanti West Coast are doing this too, but it's still a step in the right direction and I hope more companies start doing it too. I like EMR's assisted travel policy for disabled passengers, again they allow customers guaranteed assistance if booked within twelve hours of travel with a good online form, compared to 24 hours notice being required by many other companies. This is really good compared to the likes of TPExpress who offer some similar routes (they offer the fastest travel between Manchester and Liverpool/Sheffield) who's online form always changes the train time and they require a full 24 hours notice. They also allow customers to book it over the phone too, again this is good for customers who might not be tech-savvy and it's open 24-7. I do think they need to train staff fully on this front as I have had online bookings ignored. Interestingly one of their main and longest routes of Liverpool to Norwich, which goes via Manchester which takes 5 hours and 24 minutes still takes around 3/4 of an hour longer than getting a service from Lime Street to Euston (Avanti West Coast) and from there getting the tube to Moorgate, walking half a mile to Liverpool Street station and then continuing on your journey with a greateranglia service from there. (I presume it could be down to having a slow route through the north at first with the train from Liverpool to Manchester taking almost double the length of a TPExpress train). The website again is one of the most professional I've seen in a railway company, it's so easy to use and the same can be said about the app - it is actually much better than Avanti West Coast which commenced in December 2019 and as of writing is the newest railway franchise in the UK. One of my first times travelling with EMR was from Manchester to Leicester, as obviously these cities aren't usually connected by railway it meant having to change trains at Sheffield, their main route which is from their cities and London St Pancras seems to have nicer trains which include First Class which sadly some of their longer routes serving the north of England and Norwich doesn't. I also travelled with EMR from Derby to Sheffield, there were some awful delays on the network however my service wasn't effected as it came from Kettering. The train was clean with a good First Class service including gluten-free shortbread biscuits. While the seat reservations failed to work with no apology or explanation, the wifi didn't dip out during my trip, I'd rather have slow consistent wifi than faster wifi which went down constantly, as it did with CrossCountry when I made the opposite journey. Overall, I was pretty pleased with EMR but bringing their Liverpool - Norwich route trains in line with the services going into London and Kettering is much needed. The staff on board are also great (most of the time). 4*

I used East Midlands Trains last weekend for a return trip up to Loughborough from London…read more The whole experience was pretty good - the train left spot on time in both directions, and the trains - modern 125mph diesels - were clean and comfortable. They weren't particularly busy, which helped, but the whole experience was incident free - as it should be. We managed to get a group booking which made the round trip cost £16 each - pretty good, I thought. The only gripe I have is that the Midland platforms at St Pancras always feel like an afterthought - the ticket office is downstairs, as are all the other facilities (like loos). There's a solitary cafe which feels like it was intended for Midlands passengers. It's OK in summer, but it feels very bleak in winter. East Midlands Trains is the name of the company that runs the trains services on the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. It took over the franchises of Midland Mainline and much of the area operated by Central Trains, last November (2007). Although I'm not a fan of Stagecoach, the ultimate operating company, I have to say it was all pretty good last week.

The UK's Southeastern Railway operates one of the busiest networks in the country, running the…read moretrain service between London and Kent and parts of East Sussex.. Gayle and I recently were on their system for a round trip (St. Pancras to Faversham and Canterbury West back to Charring Cross). We sat regular class on slower "local" trains both ways, which were basically commuter runs. The price was right, we had lots of room to spread out as there were few fellow passengers, the ride was comfortable, and the scenery out the window was interesting enough. I'm not sure I'd want to commute like this every day, but that's the bargain that a lot of folks make to live in a nice area that's not the big city.

Southeastern Railway is currently owned by London & South Eastern Railway Limited, it operates…read moreroutes on the Integrated Kent franchise by Govia, who in turn is owned by two rather big players in the UK transportation game including Go-Ahead (largest bus operator in London, Manchester and offering services in other cities) and Keolis (A truly worldwide company who operate buses in Sweden, trains in Boston, the Metro in Shanghai as well as services closer to home such as Manchester's Metrolink, the DLR in London and TFW Rail services.) While the interior of my train wasn't overly impressive or modern, it was comfortable for a short journey of 10 minutes between Charring Cros and London Bridge which also goes via Waterloo East, this is a zone where you can use your Oyster meaning it can work out pretty cheap to travel in comparison to a normal ticket. This journey only came to £2.40, with a daily cap of £7.20 for all zone 1 and 2 services in the cap which includes national rail, tube, DLR and buses. Trains seemed to operate efficiently and quickly with services every two minutes between these destinations and the train staff seemed friendly enough at both stations, although I didn't see a train staff member on board which could be down to it being a short journey. The website is easy to use and explains the ticketing system including Oyster well. Southeastern has 73 stations in the Oyster PAYG area (the price varies between zones obviously between 1 and 9), which is one of the highest of any railway operating company and I presume is second after TFL Rail. I would recommend going along their central London route between London Bridge and Charing Cross via Waterloo East just for the view, with trains every 2-3 minutes during the day (which didn't get busy outside of rush hour) and a journey lasting just under 8 minutes, it is worth it for some great views on the bridge crossing including Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye. 3*

The biggest Boots store in Nottingham, it includes an Opticians and a Pharmacy. Spread over two…read morefloors, with a large Baby and Photo section upstairs, and Everything you would expect from a Boots store downstairs. They have lots of multi-buy deals and you can collect Advantage Card points. It also has a baby changing and feeding room upstairs.

This is the main railway station serving the University town of Loughborough, 20 miles north of…read moreLeicester. First opened in 1840 on the then Midland Counties Railway, the station was rebuilt in its present position and style by its successor company, the Midland Railway in 1872. The transverse gabled glass canopies and neat Italianate buildings in yellow stock brick are classics of Midland Railway architecture, and the building is grade II listed. It is served by East Midland train services from London along the Midland Main Line to Nottingham and Derby, with a smaller number of Sheffield trains calling. It is also served by the local service from Leicester to Newark and Lincoln via Nottingham. The station has a small shop, ticket office (part time), toilets, an ample car-park and cycle storage, but there is no cafe. Regular local buses call here, including the town shuttle into the centre, and a link bus to East Midlands Airport. The station has level access to platform 1, but platforms 2 and 3 require the use of a barrow crossing which can be used with staff supervision only. The station has short platforms, so some expresses can be accessed by specific carriages only.

Loughborough was a bit of a surprise for me. I heard about how small the town was before I came…read morefor a weeklong stay, and expected it to be like some of the other small towns on the outskirts of England. Maybe a bit rough, a bit old and run-down. It was actually quite a pleasant place to stay! It definitely has that small-town feel, with everything within walking distance. Loads of great restaurants to visit, and a plethora of assorted bars catering to different clientele. The bars all seem to have deals on Jagerbombs, so that's a plus if you're in a party mood. As for the train station specifically, it's a small one-platform setup, the type of station where half of the trains fly by without slowing down. Modern amenities with electronic access, all the normal features you'd expect from a smallish station. Nice and clean, too.