Making the connection

With a growing focus on greener travel, there idemand for rail service and efficiency is increasing. This sentiment has not been lost of the cities in the East Midlands with a wide range of improvements are being embraced by the region.

As a start point the rail stations of the region are currently in the process of planning and receiving major upgrades. 

Nottingham announced in the latter part of 2009 that the city had given the green light to a station regeneration program to cost in excess of £11m and describe as the most radical redesign of Nottingham’s rail services in over 100 years. Through signalling and platform redesign, the regeneration work will allow for an increase in services and capacity, as well as more efficient transition of trains passing through the station on the way to other destinations. Improvements will thus help decrease journey times to Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. These cities, alongside Nottingham, will be key locations as potential host cities if 2018 World Cup is awarded to England.

Other Midlands’ stations are also in line to benefit from improvements. Estates Review has previously reported on the planned improvements to Derby station that will act as a catalyst for a wider regeneration project being enacted in the city. Meanwhile around £10m has been pledged to the improvements at Leicester station.

Further connectivity potential has already been unlocked in the region through the construction of East Midlands Parkway. This brand new station, situated between Nottingham, Derby and Loughborough and close to the M1, allows passengers to transfer to nearby East Midlands Airport. Offering international flights to most leading European destinations and to as far away as Orlando in one direction and Goa in the other, the airport makes the region a perfect location for global business.

However the most exciting development perhaps is the planned redesign of Birmingham New Street station in the West Midlands. Along with track improvements, this huge £350m project will increase connectivity across the country’s major cities by decreasing journey times from London to Birmingham to as little as 40 minutes; the equivalent time of travelling from one side of Zone 3 to the other on the London Underground.

Such journey times are expected to be delivered by 2011, holding obvious enormous potential benefits for the whole of the Midlands region. Businesses are already considering the East Midlands as a prime place for relocation. With more space available and much cheaper rents currently than London, several businesses have already announced developments in the area, taking advantage of the coming improvements.

So convinced are authorities of the region’s potential that Network Rail itself intends to build in Milton Keynes, having recently been given the stamp of approval by Milton Keynes planning authority to build in the city. The 40,000 sq ft new development (pictured above) will house around 3,000 staff and act as a national centre for the company, coming into action in 2012. The development aims for green credentials, including a ‘green roof’ that utilises grass and fauna to form an environmentally-beneficial insulation layer. The centre is hoped to act as a catalyst to revitalise that area of the city and attract more business opportunities and developments to the area.

With these developments,the opportunities in the region are likely to grow substantially. And as London-based organisations such as the BBC start moving northwards and raise awareness of the potential value to be had outside of the capital, the potential of thissx region could soon be realised.