Long Eaton railway station serves the town of

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has been part ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England. It lies on the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...

and the - line north of London St Pancras. The station is managed by

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

, but

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...

operates some services.

History

The line was opened by the

Midland Counties Railway The Midland Counties' Railway (MCR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1839 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, t ...

in 1839, which shortly joined the

North Midland Railway The North Midland Railway was a railway line and Great Britain, British railway company, which opened a line from the city of Derby in Derbyshire to the city of Leeds in Yorkshire in 1840. At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby J ...

and the

Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway (B&DJR) was a Great Britain, British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Derby Midland Sta ...

to form the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

. The first Sawley station was a mile out of the village on Sawley Lane,

Breaston Breaston ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Borough of Erewash, Erewash district, in the south-east of Derbyshire and lies approximately east of the city of Derby and west of the city of Nottingham. The population of the civil paris ...

. First used in 1839, when the line opened, it was the third station from Nottingham. It was originally called Breaston, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with Beeston. This station was designed by A. A. Langley, engineer to the

, and opened as Sawley Junction on 10 December 1888 on Tamworth Road. Since another station had been opened not far away at Draycott in 1852, the original Sawley closed in 1930. For some years from the 1920s until 1937, the station was managed by the station master at Trent Junction. In 1932, the LMS announced that Sawley Junction would be known as Sawley Junction for Long Eaton. In 1967 the station became known as Long Eaton. Since late 2009, Long Eaton has become a

penalty fare A penalty fare, standard fare, or fixed penalty notice is a special, usually higher, fare charged because a passenger using public transport did not comply with the normal ticket purchasing rules. It should not be confused with an unpaid fares ...

station. Tickets must be purchased from the ticket office or self-service machine before boarding a train.

Accidents and incidents

On 9 October 1869 a

passenger train was involved in a rear-end collision with another train at Long Eaton Junction resulting in seven deaths and another twelve injured. The investigation blamed fog, inadequate braking power, excessive speed and fogman error for the collision.

Services

Rail routes run north–south through Long Eaton along the route known as the

, going south to , , and London; and north to Derby, and . A major junction south of the station at Trent links with the cross-country route to Nottingham. West bound services to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

travel via Derby and the

Cross Country Route The Cross Country Route is a long-distance railway route in England, which runs from to via , , and or . Inter-city services on the route, which include some of the longest passenger journeys in the UK such as to , are operated by CrossC ...

. Train operators using the station include

and

. The usual Monday–Saturday service pattern is as follows: *Cross-country **1 tph to

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

(platform 1) **1 tph to Cardiff Central (platform 2) *East Midlands Railway **1 tph to London St Pancras (platform 1) **2 tph to

, with 1 tph continuing to (platform 1) **1 tph to

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

(platform 2) **1 tph to Matlock (platform 2) **1 tph to

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

(platform 2) On Sundays, the London to Sheffield trains call hourly in each direction and the Matlock trains every two hours. There is an hourly Derby to Nottingham stopping service in each direction, but no direct service to Birmingham.

Current station

The usable length of the station platforms is shorter than the Intercity trains which stop here. Passengers arriving from London, Derby or Sheffield usually have to alight from the front four carriages. Cycles are sometimes stored in vestibules away from the cycle lockers, depending on the orientation of the train. The station is staffed between 06:00 and 17:30 during the day and has three automatic ticket machines installed externally, which can be used day and night: at the station front and on platform 1 and 2 inside the platform shelter. It was planned that both platforms would be extended by up to ten metres by no later than 2012. This was not completed and the platform has not been extended. Developments along the Erewash line are expected to bring changes to Long Eaton station. A plan drawn up in 2011 recommended a new Derby to Mansfield service via new stations at Breaston & Draycott, Long Eaton West (renamed from Long Eaton), Long Eaton Central, Stapleford & Sandiacre, Ilkeston, Eastwood & Langley Mill (renamed from Langley Mill), Selston & Somercotes and then to Pinxton via new trackbed connecting with the Mansfield line from Nottingham at Kirkby in Ashfield.

References

*''The Nottingham and Derby Railway Companion'', 1839, republished 1979 with a foreword by J. B. Radford, Derbyshire Record Society *C. Banks, 1996. ''British Railways Past and Present: Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire,'' Past and Present Publishing Ltd *M. Higginson, 1989. ''The Midland Counties Railway: A Pictorial Survey,'' Derby: Midland Railway Trust

External links

{{coord, 52, 53, 06, N, 1, 17, 14, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Derbyshire DfT Category D stations Former Midland Railway stations Long Eaton Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations served by CrossCountry