Parkway to open this month

THE £25m East Midlands Parkway station will open this month, the Evening Post can reveal.

But campaigners say the rail link – aimed at tempting drivers from Nottingham, Derby and Leicester off the M1 – needs a more regular London service to be successful.

They also fear it could lead to increased congestion out of Nottingham on the A453.

Passengers in Beeston are also upset because the town has lost two popular morning commuter services to London – the 7.36am and 8.34am – so they can stop at the Parkway instead.

David Thornhill, chairman of Notts Campaign for Better Transport, said services from Parkway needed to be more evenly spaced.

The planned timetable will see three trains an hour depart for the capital for most of the day – two direct and one changing at Loughborough. But all of them go within 11 minutes – leaving a 49-minute gap.

Mr Thornhill said this was little better than having one train an hour and it needed one every 20 minutes to get motorists to ditch their cars.

But the earliest this could happen is 2011 when infrastructure improvements would allow a major timetable change.

"Everything happens in 11 minutes, then nothing," he said. "Motorists don't like that as it may be difficult to predict when they can get there; just miss one train and it's a long wait until the next.

"It is also imperative that stations like Beeston still have a good rail service and passengers are not encouraged to drive along the A453, which is already congested, to the Parkway."

Notts County Council's rail officer Jim Bamford said the timings were the biggest problem.

"Beeston does have four trains which arrive in London between 8am and 10am and then every hour for the rest of the day, which is actually an excellent service for somewhere of its size," he said.

"East Midlands Parkway is a very significant addition to the East Midlands' rail network which we expect to be very well used.

"However, everybody is disappointed with the timing of services from East Midlands Parkway and the way the trains to London are bunched together.

"This should be corrected once the upgrade of the Midland Mainline is completed in 2011."

Coun Stephen Barber, of Broxtowe Borough Council, said: "If they are going to be serious about putting on a service to London, I would have thought there should be a 20-minute interval between services throughout the day – otherwise motorists won't use it."

East Midlands Trains declined to comment on the opening date but defended its timetable.

Spokeswoman Debbie Mather said morning commuter trains were more frequent and regular, with a service every 20 to 30 minutes between 6am and 8.30am.

"The trains that call at the Parkway come from other places and our route is already very busy," she said.

"We only have a limited number of paths so we can only put a limited number of trains to London on a day."

Nottingham City Council is determined the city station remains the most important facility in the area.

Grant Butterworth, planning and transport strategy manager, said: "The city council sees Nottingham station as being the most important facility and the Parkway doesn't change that.

"Our primary focus is on making the most of existing stations, but the investment in the Parkway has been made and we need to make sure it is used in a complementary way, and not an undermining way, to the main station in Nottingham."

Network Rail is due to make an announcement this week about the exact date of the station's opening.

The National Rail Enquiries website lists the first trains as running on January 26.

The station – off the A453, in the shadow of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station – will have 100 trains passing through every day.

It will provide park and ride facilities for passengers on the routes from Leicester to Derby and Nottingham, and it is hoped it will tempt drivers off the M1.