Fewer trains will service Nottingham

Midland Mainline has launched a new service between Manchester and London - which calls at Leicester and Market Harborough.

However the new route comes as a cost for people in Nottingham, with a reduction in services to London.

The London-Nottingham service will now run only once an hour, rather than twice.

Three decades

The new route between London and Manchester has been introduced as an alternative for passengers travelling between the north-west and London while the west coast line is modernised.

But it has the additional benefit of allowing people in Leicestershire to travel directly to Manchester for the first time in three decades.

Initially, they will be nine services every weekday, but that will rise to 15 a day - which equates to one every hour - from 30 June.

Midland Mainline has employed 206 new staff to work on the service, and acquired 10 more High Speed Trains.

Economic effect

Journey times between Leicester and Manchester will be an average of two hours.

The reduction in trains from Nottingham has led to some warnings that the city's economy will be affected and trains will be overcrowded.

And people travelling to smaller stations, like Beeston and Attenborough, will have to change at Leicester.

Midland Mainline said it was asked to make the changes by the Strategic Rail Authority.