Oakham railway station

Oakham
The station platforms
Location
Place	Oakham
Local authority	County of Rutland
Grid reference	SK856090
Operations
Station code	OKM
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.193 million
2005/06	0.189 million
2006/07	0.209 million
2007/08	0.216 million
2008/09	0.226 million
2009/10	0.202 million
2010/11	0.215 million
2011/12	0.199 million
2012/13	0.204 million
2013/14	0.203 million
2014/15	0.208 million
History
Original company	Midland Counties Railway
Pre-grouping	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
1 May 1848	Station opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Oakham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

The front facade of Oakham railway station.

Oakham railway station serves the town of Oakham in Rutland, England. The station is situated almost halfway between Leicester – 27 miles (43 km) to the west – and Peterborough – 25 miles (40 km) eastward on the (as built) Syston and Peterborough Railway, the line is now part of the much bigger Birmingham to Peterborough Line.

Oakham is Rutland's only surviving passenger railway station. The line from Oakham to Kettering via Corby (which branches off just east of Oakham) until recently rarely saw use by passenger trains being used largely exclusively by freight trains. Since the opening of Corby station it sees daily use with trains from London St Pancras, as well as the occasional use as a diversionary route for passenger trains normally using the Midland Main Line. The daily services to/from London serve Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, and Luton.

Buildings

The station building, the nearby level crossing signal box and footbridge are each listed buildings. The signal box was the prototype for the Airfix kit signal box.^[1]

Since 2007 some of the station buildings have been used as the headquarters of the charitable organisation Change Agents UK.

Services

From Oakham there is an hourly service in both directions operated by CrossCountry, with some additional peak-hour trains. Services run westbound to Birmingham New Street via Melton Mowbray, Leicester, Narborough, Hinckley, Nuneaton and Coleshill Parkway whilst services eastbound run to Stansted Airport or Cambridge via Stamford, Peterborough, March, Ely and Audley End.^[2]

Despite managing the station, East Midlands Trains (EMT) only operates a limited number of services to/from it. A few trains operate at either end of the day, mainly for train crew route knowledge retention purposes. An early morning service runs from Nottingham to Norwich and an evening service operates from Spalding via Peterborough to Nottingham.

The station retains a ticket office which is staffed part-time, a car park and help points for times where there are no staff present.

A single daily return service to London St Pancras commenced on 27 April 2009 running via Corby^[3] and is notable for being the first regular passenger service to cross the spectacular and historic Welland Viaduct since 1966. The company introduced a further return service from Derby via East Midlands Parkway (for East Midlands Airport) from May 2010.^[4] Further services may be introduced in the future.^[5] The initial London service had been due to start on 14 December 2008 but because of a delay in reaching agreement with the Department for Transport and the rolling stock operating company (ROSCO) for the four additional trains needed for the service EMT started the service around four months later.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Melton Mowbray		CrossCountry Birmingham-Stansted Airport		Stamford
Melton Mowbray		East Midlands Trains Nottingham-Norwich (via Loughborough) Limited Service		Stamford
Melton Mowbray		East Midlands Trains Derby-London (via Corby) Limited Service		Corby

Former services

The location of Oakham Station (shown on the pre-1966 network), which still serves the county town of Oakham.

Prior to the Beeching Axe trains used to stop at a number of smaller village destinations in Rutland. These were closed between 1961 and 1966.

Summary of former services

Sample train timetable for July 1922

The table below shows the train departures from Oakham on weekdays in July 1922.^[6] The basic services are Peterborough to Leicester and Kettering to Nottingham. In this timetable, Oakham is served by two London to Nottingham expresses, arriving in Oakham at 10.22 and 18.55. Southbound the only direct service is at 18.09, but two additional Nottingham to London expresses call at Manton with connections from Oakham at 08.43 and 11.05.

Departure	Going to	Calling at	Arrival	Operator
07.05	Leicester	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Asfordby, Frisby, Brooksby, Rearsby, Syston, Humberstone Road, Leicester	08.30	MR
08.11	Kettering	Manton, Harringworth, Gretton, Weldon & Corby, Geddington, Kettering	09.25	MR
08.21	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Uffington & Barnack, Helpston, Walton, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	09.33	MR
08.43	Manton	Manton (Connects with Nottingham to London express at Manton)	09.25	MR
08.54	Leicester	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Asfordby, Frisby, Brooksby, Rearsby, Syston, Leicester	10.03	MR
10.11	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Uffington & Barnack, Helpston, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	11.20	MR
10.22	Nottingham	Melton Mowbray, Nottingham (London to Nottingham express)	11.05	MR
11.05	Peterborough East	Manton, Stamford, Peterborough North, Peterborough East (Connects with Nottingham to London express at Manton)	12.13	MR
11.15	Leicester	Melton Mowbray, Leicester	11.56	MR
11.25	Nottingham	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Grimston, Old Dalby, Upper Broughton, Widmerpool, Plumtree, Edwalton, Nottingham	12.40	MR
13.05	Kettering	Manton, Harringworth, Gretton, Weldon & Corby, Geddington, Kettering	13.56	MR
13.09	Leicester	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Leicester	14.00	MR
13.58	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Uffington & Barnack, Helpston, Walton, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	15.08	MR
14.51	Melton Mowbray	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray	15.17	MR
16.28	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Uffington & Barnack, Helpston, Walton, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	17.37	MR
16.40	Leicester	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Syston, Leicester	17.32	MR
17.49	Nottingham	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Grimston, Old Dalby, Upper Broughton, Widmerpool, Plumtree, Edwalton, Nottingham	19.03	MR
17.56	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Helpston, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	19.02	MR
18.09	London St Pancras	Manton, Kettering, Wellingborough, Luton, London St Pancras (Nottingham to London express)	18.44	MR
18.13	Leicester	Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Asfordby, Frisby, Brooksby, Rearsby, Syston, Leicester	19.13	MR
18.55	Nottingham	Melton Mowbray, Nottingham (London to Nottingham express)	19.38	MR
19.10	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Helpston, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	20.20	MR
20.14	Nottingham	Ashwell, Whissendine, Saxby, Melton Mowbray, Grimston, Old Dalby, Upper Broughton, Widmerpool, Plumtree, Edwalton, Nottingham	21.33	MR
21.20	Leicester	Ashwell, Melton Mowbray, Syston, Leicester	22.08	MR
22.10	Peterborough East	Manton, Luffenham, Ketton, Stamford, Peterborough North, Peterborough East	23.05	MR

References

1. http://www.airfixrailways.co.uk/SignalBox.htm
2. Table 47 National Rail timetable, May 2016
3. "Passengers from Melton Mowbray set to benefit from direct link to London". www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. 7 April 2009.
4. Table 53 National Rail timetable, May 2016
5. "Rail service could run north of town". Northants Evening Telegraph. 21 February 2008.
6. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide, July 1922

External links

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

Coordinates: 52°40′21″N 0°44′04″W / 52.67250°N 0.73444°W