First glimpse of our new railway station

These are the first artist's impressions of the new-look Market Harborough railway station.

The station will be re-designed in a £46million scheme which will straighten the line, increase car park capacity and approximately double the length of platforms.

The scheme will also reduce the large step-up to carriages from the platforms at Market Harborough and allow “step free access” to both platforms.

The main picture at the top of the page shows the station from the Rockingham Road side, looking towards Leicester.

The historic station building (dating from 1884) is retained, which can be seen in the centre of the picture.

The photo also shows that the bend of the railway track has been straightened, taking out a chunk of the present car park.

The main car park in the future will therefore be on the opposite side of the tracks - you can see it between the station building and the horizon.

It will be linked to Rockingham Road via a new access road on the opposite side of the railway bridge to the present entrance.

The second picture above on the platform is looking in the opposite direction, towards London.

Notice the straightened railway line, the hugely extended platforms and the new footbridge across the railway. Work is due to begin in summer 2017 and finish in spring 2019.

Network Rail project manager Troy Lancaster said: “This project is going to be fantastic for Harborough.”

The station re-design is part of a massive Network Rail modernisation programme, which they claim is the biggest since the Victorian era.

It is designed to provide more capacity and reduce overcrowding as the number of rail passengers grows.

Passenger numbers have doubled in the past 20 years and are set to double again over the next 25 years.