The reopening of Corby station in February 2009 and the introduction of the half-hourly EMR Connect service to London St Pancras after Midland Main Line electrification was completed in 2020 was transformational. The town now has a 1 hour 14 minute fastest journey to central London, with two trains per hour using Class 360 electric units. But the service runs in only one direction. Trains north of Corby continue to Melton Mowbray only twice a day on weekdays, and there is no service east or west, even though most of the route east to Stamford and Peterborough is still in place.

Our rail ambition is sequenced deliberately. Corby station itself comes first: it is the asset the town already has, it is visibly under-provided, and every other rail proposal in this section depends on it working. The Welland Valley Rail link east to Luffenham, Stamford and Peterborough is our primary new-service target, because most of the infrastructure already exists and it has an established cross-county partnership behind it. Beyond that, we set out how Corby could position itself as a junction on a theoretical second East West Rail corridor across the Midlands and East Anglia — a long-term idea rather than a scheme, but one where decisions taken in the next few years will determine whether Corby is on the map or off it.

8.1 Targets

8.2 First priority: Corby station — second platform and northbound services

The second platform is the immediate priority to enable northbound services that can begin without a single extra track laid out to Nottingham or Leicester via Melton Mowbray/Oakham. Passenger numbers have risen every year since the pandemic from 65,878 in 2020/21 to over 560,000 in 2024/25,on a single platform with limited car parking spaces. This is the constraint that bites now, and it is the one where local pressure can realistically deliver a result within this plan period.

The station has insufficient marked car park spaces with parking overflowing into Old Village streets. NNC nearly tripled daily charges, from £3.50 to £10, in December 2024. Welland Valley Rail and any future east–west services would increase demand further, making these upgrades essential rather than optional.

• Bring the existing second platform into passenger use, with footbridge or underpass and step-free access, which essential for through services calling in both directions.
• Add at least 200 car park spaces (multi-storey if needed), with EV charging and secure cycle parking spaces. Should also consider land behind Corby Bus Station and better publicise car park sharing with Tesco.
• Bus interchange relocated to the station entrance, with real-time information and weather-protected waiting.
• Step-free access guarantee on all platforms.
• Encourage amenities at the station
• Passive provision for the future: platform lengths, track layout and land take that do not preclude through east–west services (Section 8.4).

These are not optional extras contingent on new lines. Even with no new services at all, the station as it stands is inadequate for a town approaching 80,000 people, and the parking overspill is already the single biggest live grievance for residents of the Old Village.

8.3 Welland Valley Rail with Luffenham station

Welland Valley Rail is our primary target for a new service. It is the most deliverable major rail proposal available to Corby: the route largely exists, including the Harringworth Viaduct, and only around 3.5 miles of new track is required between Seaton and Luffenham. It already has a constituted partnership and cross-party, cross-county backing, which matters more than technical elegance when bidding for national funding.

We continue to back the Welland Valley Rail proposal in full. Required works: 3.5 miles of new track between Seaton and Luffenham; a new station at Luffenham; track and signalling works. Indicative cost £150 to £250 million. Battery-electric multiple units would avoid full electrification. Funding: jointly between NNC, Rutland CC, Lincolnshire CC, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and DfT. Welland Valley Rail is also the first building block of the east–west case in Section 8.4: with it, Corby has rail in three directions — north to Oakham and Melton, east to Stamford and Peterborough, and south to Kettering and London — and stops being the end of a branch.

8.4 Longer-term ambition: Corby on a theoretical East West Rail 2

East West Rail is the new line being built between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge. Its first sections are already open, services between Oxford and Milton Keynes are due by 2030, and the full route to Cambridge is planned for the 2030s. It exists because a generation of councils, businesses and campaigners argued that Britain's railways run to London and back, and that the country needs lines that run across it.

That argument does not stop at the Oxford–Cambridge corridor. Fifty miles north, the same gap exists between the Midlands and East Anglia: there is no direct rail service between Northampton, Kettering or Corby and Peterborough, Cambridge or Norwich, and most of that traffic goes by road on the A14, the A43 and the A47. A second east–west corridor — call it East West Rail 2 — is, for now, an idea rather than a project. Nobody has drawn its route and nobody has funded a study of it. We raise it here for one reason: if such a corridor is ever developed, the most natural alignment through this part of the country runs through Corby.

• Geography. Corby sits where the Midland Main Line's Corby branch meets the existing line north to Oakham and Melton Mowbray. With Welland Valley Rail, it would also connect east to Stamford and Peterborough — and from Peterborough the East Coast Main Line and the lines to Cambridge, Ely and Norwich are already there. A Midlands–East Anglia service from Northampton or Kettering to Peterborough and beyond would pass through Corby by default.
• Existing assets. The Harringworth Viaduct, the Oakham line and the Corby branch itself are all in use; the missing piece is 3.5 miles at Seaton–Luffenham. Compared with East West Rail, which required new construction across open country, an eastern link from Corby is largely a question of joining up what exists.
• Growth. Corby, Peterborough, Cambridge and Northampton are among the fastest-growing places in England. Connecting them by rail is the same logic that justified the first East West Rail, applied one corridor north.

What Corby should do now:

• Safeguard the junction. Every scheme at Corby station — the second platform, the car park, the interchange — should be designed with passive provision for through east–west services: platforms long enough, a track layout that does not preclude a future connection, and no development that sterilises the alignment.
• Make Welland Valley Rail the first stage. The Seaton–Luffenham link is worth building on its own merits, and it is the single piece of infrastructure that turns Corby from a branch terminus into a junction. Every argument for WVR is also an argument for East West Rail 2.
• Build the alliance early. East West Rail succeeded because Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge asked for it together, for two decades. Corby should propose to Northampton, Kettering, Rutland, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire a joint statement of interest in a Midlands–East Anglia rail corridor, and ask the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the relevant sub-national transport bodies to include it in their long-term strategies.
• Ask for the study. The first tangible ask is a strategic outline case — not a route, not a cost — examining whether a second east–west corridor has merit and where Corby would sit on it. That is a modest piece of work, and it is the price of being taken seriously later.

We are clear about what this is. East West Rail 2 does not exist; it may never exist; and if it does it may take a different route. Our point is narrower: Corby has spent its recent railway history at the end of a branch, and the decisions made at Corby station in the next ten years will either keep the door to a through route open or close it. Keeping it open costs very little. Closing it would be permanent.

8.5 What Corby will press for

• Corby's councillors and MP acting as the named local voice on Corby station improvements, with passive provision for through services written into every scheme.
• The Corby Rail Users Group supported and expanded to champion Welland Valley Rail and the east–west case.
• Residents' input on parking displacement into the Old Village coordinated in partnership with COVNA.
• A constituted Corby Welland Valley Rail Support Group, working with Rutland and the partners along the line.
• Renewed bids to DfT new-stations and rail enhancement funds for Corby station and Welland Valley Rail, backed by the Joint Infrastructure Forum.
• A Midlands–East Anglia rail corridor statement of interest tabled with neighbouring authorities and transport bodies within the first phase of this plan.

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