Network Rail shelves improvements to Market Harborough station

Bad news in the Leicester Mercury:

Track improvements, which could shave five minutes off train times from Leicester to London, have been left out of Network Rail spending plans. 

Rail campaigners say the long-awaited scheme to straighten the Midland Main Line through Market Harborough station is not in the draft development programme for the next five years. 

Also missing are proposals to rebuild the platforms, which are too short, too low and do not meet modern access standards.

As an old school friend of mine is quoted as saying later in the report:

"It really is unacceptable that accessibility – especially to the southbound platform – remains so poor. Wheelchair users even have to be wheeled across the track of what is a busy inter-city main line."

I blogged about this problem myself a couple of months ago.