Monday 27 Oct 2025
Near-£1m investment in new track means a weekend of passenger journey changes
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
- | Eastern: East Midlands
A project to install 830 metres of new track will mean a weekend with no trains between Nottingham and Leicester.
The £968,000 investment will see Network Rail teams carrying out engineering work at Mountsorrel, north of Leicester.
The upgrade will involve 830 metres of rail being fitted on 1,232 new concrete sleepers, supported by 3,000 tonnes of new ballast. It is part of ongoing efforts to modernise the railway – improving travel for passengers by delivering smoother, more reliable journeys.
The work means rail replacement bus services will run between Nottingham and Leicester on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 November.
Dan Matthews, Network Rail operations director, said:
“This important upgrade at Mountsorrel is part of our ongoing commitment to improving journeys for passengers across the East Midlands.
“By installing new track, we’re helping to deliver smoother, more reliable services for years to come. We’re sorry for any inconvenience and we appreciate passengers’ patience while we carry out this work.”
Philippa Cresswell, customer experience director for EMR, said:
“We recommend customers planning to travel on either Saturday 15 or Sunday 16 November to check their journey in advance as the journey will take much longer than usual.
“Rail replacement buses will be in place between Nottingham and Leicester, with no direct journeys to London from Sheffield or Nottingham. For full details on how to complete your journey, please check the EMR website.
“We would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst Network Rail install new tracks.”
Check details of your journey with your train operator or National Rail before travelling.
Notes to Editors
Saturday:
Trains between Nottingham and London St Pancras International will run between Leicester and London St Pancras International only, with some trains calling additionally at Long Eaton.
The following services will be amended:
- The 05:00 Nottingham to Norwich service will depart Nottingham later than scheduled at 05:23.
- The 06:08 Nottingham to Norwich service will depart Nottingham later than scheduled at 05:55.
These services will return to their scheduled departure time from Peterborough through to Norwich. They will no longer call at East Midlands Parkway, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Oakham or Stamford however they will additionally call at Grantham.
Connecting rail replacement bus services will run between Nottingham and Peterborough, calling at the above stations.
Sunday:
A reduced timetable will operate on the following services:
- One train per hour to/from Sheffield and East Midlands Parkway calling at Derby
- Two trains per hour to/from Leicester and London St Pancras International.
Saturday and Sunday:
There will be a revised timetable on Leicester to Cleethorpes services with trains running between Nottingham and Cleethorpes only.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Gareth Dennison
Media relations manager, Eastern region
Network Rail
07561 874858
gareth.dennison@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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