Kettering railway station

Kettering railway station from the Illustrated London News 23 May 1857

The station was opened in May 1857 by the Midland Railway, on a line linking the Midland to the Great Northern Railway at Hitchin. Later, the Midland gained its own London terminus at St Pancras railway station. In 1857, the leather trade was in recession and so over half of Kettering's population was on poor relief; the railway enabled the town to sell its products over a much wider area and restored it to prosperity.

The original station with a single platform was designed by Charles Henry Driver, with particularly fine 'pierced grill' cast ironwork on the platform. In 1858, it was reported that the station was now lit by gas lamps with gas supplied from the town mains. It was also reported that the line was one of the very few without telegraphic wires.[2]

From 1866, the station was also the terminus of the Midland cross country branch line from Cambridge via St Ives and Huntingdon, until closure in June 1959.

In 1879, the line was quadrupled. New fast lines were built to the west of the original slow lines. Three new platforms were built: numbers 2 and 3 on an island between the fast and slow lines, with number 4 to the west of the fast lines. The Midland Railway commissioned single-storey weather-boarded waiting rooms and canopies, with cast-iron columns and spandrels for the island platforms 2 and 3 and platform 4, to match those designed in 1857 by Charles Henry Driver.

From 1879 (for freight) and 1880 (for passengers), Kettering was also a junction for the direct line from Kettering to Nottingham, via Oakham and Melton Mowbray. This closed to passengers in 1966, but was left as a through route for freight (as far as Melton Mowbray only from 1968.) For later services on this line, see "Corby Services" below.

Other additions included a two-bay engine shed, erected by C. Deacon & Company for the Midland Railway, at the north end of the forecourt around 1875 and a goods shed with offices, built at the south end around 1894.

The Midland Railway replaced the main station buildings on platform 1 between 1895 and 1898 with a new booking hall, booking office, parcels office and refreshment room. These current buildings may be by Charles Trubshaw.[1] It is regarded as one of the best remaining examples of Midland architecture.[3]

In the 1970s, the glass canopies became a maintenance headache for British Rail, who proposed to remove the tops of the cast iron columns and replace the glass canopies with plastic sheeting. Kettering Civic Society objected to the plans and the canopies and columns were reprieved, later to be sympathetically restored by Railtrack in 2000.

All services at Kettering are operated by East Midlands Railway under its InterCity and Luton Airport Express brands. Luton Airport Express was introduced as an official separate brand for the "Connect" service in 2023.[6]

As of May 2021, services are operated using Class 180 Adelante and Class 222 Meridian DMUs for InterCity services and Class 360 EMUs for Luton Airport Express services.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[7][8]

• 4 tph to London St Pancras International (2 of these are non-stop Intercity services and 2 are Luton Airport Express services calling at Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton and Luton Airport Parkway)
• 2 tph to Corby
• 2 tph to Nottingham via Leicester

There is also a limited service to Sheffield although most Sheffield-bound trains pass through the station without stopping.

There are also two trains per day that continue past Corby to and from Oakham and Melton Mowbray. One of these terminates at Kettering and the other continues to London St Pancras.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Market Harborough		East Midlands Railway Midland Main Line		London St Pancras International
Corby		Luton Airport Express London to Corby Connect		Wellingborough
	Disused railways
Glendon and Rushton		Midland Railway Midland Main Line		Isham and Burton Latimer

Kettering is staffed during operational hours (05:00-00:30); it is locked and inaccessible outside of these times. The station is equipped with CCTV cameras, which are monitored locally and at the town council offices.

From 2009, Kettering became a penalty fare station; a valid ticket or permit to travel must be shown on request.

• Lifts to all platforms.
• Two pay and display car parks (for charges see http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/ket/details.html).
• Waiting rooms on all platforms. Platform 4 has a painting of a girl looking into a box, artist unknown.
• Pumpkin Café.
• Accessible toilet and baby change.
• Stagecoach X1 bus to Corby
• FastTicket machine
• Food vending machines.
• Payphones.
• Taxis.

The station is included in the PlusBus scheme, where bus travel can be added to train tickets for a small additional charge. Through fares were made available from 68 UK towns and cities to Paris, Brussels and other destinations in France and Belgium in late 2007; these must be booked through Eurostar.[9]

The station formerly had a nightclub in the basement of the station building. The nightclub has recently had a licence granted, which shall re-open and as a bar and music venue.

A subway and barrow crossing was used at the station to access the various platforms, until the lifts and stairs were constructed in the 1990s. The former station master's flat has remained available to rent for several years.

It was originally planned that all platforms would be extended by up to 50 metres by 2012, to allow longer trains to be accommodated.[10] This was not actioned until years later, as the platforms were extended by August 2020 in preparation for the May 2021[11] timetable change. This is because 21 new 4-carriage Class 360 EMU units are occasionally used in formations of threes, equivalent to 12 carriages per train, and require the extra platform length to fit fully.[12]

Until very recently, the railway through Kettering was not electrified,[13] this changed in May 2021, when Class 360 EMUs began running on the newly electrified section between Bedford and Corby, along its route between London St Pancras and Corby. Diesel Class 222 Meridians and 180 Adelantes were cascaded in order to solely run the inter-city services north to Nottingham, Sheffield, Derby, Leeds and Lincoln; these services continue to call frequently at Kettering.

Kettering is also now a major interchange for the south end of the Midland Main Line. In the May 2021 timetable change, the EMR inter-city services stopped calling at Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton and Luton Airport Parkway. Passengers from these stations now have to change at Kettering in order to take an EMR inter-city train north to destinations such as Leicester, Nottingham and Derby.[14]

The ticket office is open from 06:00 until 20:30, seven days a week. At all other times a vending machine is available.

Ticket gates are currently in the process of being installed at Kettering station as of March 2022 and should be operational soon.[16]

• Midland Main Line railway upgrade

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kettering railway station.

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