Syston railway station

Coordinates: 52°41′39.00″N 01°4′57.00″W / 52.6941667°N 1.0825000°W

Syston
Location
Place	Syston
Local authority	Borough of Charnwood
Grid reference	SK621111
Operations
Station code	SYS
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2007/08	160,238
2008/09	177,518
2009/10	188,856
2010/11	182,532
2011/12	187,192
2012/13	165,898
2013/14	175,610
2014/15	191,648
History
1840	Opened
1968	Closed
1994	Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Syston from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Syston railway station (ⁱ/ˈsaɪstən/ SY-stən) is a railway station serving the town of Syston in Leicestershire, England. The station is on the Midland Main Line from Leicester to Loughborough, 103¾ miles from London St Pancras.

For journeys beginning at Syston, the full range of tickets for travel for any destination in the country may be purchased from the guard on the train at no extra cost. It is a penalty fare station however, so a permit to travel must be bought from the machine installed on the platform before joining the train.

Early history

The station was opened on 5 May 1840 as a minor intermediate station on the Midland Counties Railway line from Leicester to Nottingham and Derby.^[1] Shortly afterwards, the Midland Counties merged with the North Midland Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway to form the Midland Railway.

Syston became a junction station on 1 September 1846 with the opening of the Syston and Peterborough Railway to Melton Mowbray, which was extended in 1848 to Peterborough.^[2] The north to east curve was opened in 1854.

A replacement station was opened in 1874 when the Midland Main Line was increased from two to four tracks.^[3]

Closure

The station closed on 4 March 1968.^[4] The station building, having been hidden by fencing for many years, was later dismantled and rebuilt at Midland Railway - Butterley with the help of David Wilson Homes, who erected a housing estate over the old station land in 2006.

Reopening

The station reopened on 27 May 1994 as part of phase one of the Ivanhoe Line. It is served hourly in both directions by East Midlands Trains local services, running between Leicester and Lincoln via Loughborough, Nottingham and Newark. There is no Sunday service. Express trains do not stop at Syston, as the single platform is on the bidirectional Leicester to Syston slow line. No Peterborough line trains call at the station, although it is possible for them to do so.

The station is sometimes used by photographers and train spotters, especially when steam specials are expected. The fast lines are those at the left of the picture. The platform line is on the bidirectional slow line.

Network Rail adopted a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007^[5] which will create a new cross country freight route from Peterborough (East Coast Main Line) to Nuneaton (West Coast Main Line). One of the next stages (around 2013) will create additional lines through Leicester during a re-signalling scheme, during this time Syston station will be rebuilt.^[6]

Services

Services are formed using diesel multiple units of class 153, 156 or 158

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Leicester		East Midlands Trains Leicester-Lincoln		Sileby
	Historical railways
Humberstone Road Line open, station closed		Midland Railway Midland Main Line		Sileby Line and station open
		Midland Railway Leicester to Peterborough		Rearsby Line open, station closed

References

1. Higginson, M, (1989) The Midland Counties Railway: A Pictorial Survey, Derby: Midland Railway Trust.
2. Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books
3. British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer.
4. Passengers No More by G.Daniels and L.Dench
5. "Route Utilisation Strategy > Freight".
6. "East Midlands". Network Rail. Retrieved 2008-08-29.

External links

• Train times and station information for Syston railway station from National Rail