Loughborough Gap

As a relatively late-developed railway in the United Kingdom, the GCR was forced to make some expensive civil engineering choices in order to complete their route. Just north of , the railway had to cross the existing Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal, before then crossing the existing Midland Main Line formation as well as avoiding the Hermitage Brook, before moving northwards to Nottingham. After the formation of the Great Central as a heritage railway, bridging the resultant "gap" always became a significant challenge to realise the full operational vision. Since the closure of the line, Morley Street industrial estate had been developed on part of the site formerly occupied by the embankment, whilst Charnwood Borough Council had developed, filled with household waste and then covered a landfill to the south. The GCR itself, having started re-instatement of the GCR line from to the south, had developed its locomotive shed on the old alignment to the north of the station. ==Current features==

The Gap is long, and approximately wide for most of its length, running due north–south approximately north from . It is bounded: to the west by the northeasternmost part of Loughborough, including the Loughborough Midland station and Morley Street industrial estate; to the east by the covered former household refuse site; and to the north and south by GCR's northern and southern sections respectively. Current plans for bridging the gap, using a single-track line, include: • Removing the Loughborough north shed. This will be a long-term project, as the approach from the canal bridge to Loughborough North signal box will initially be a single track running alongside the existing shed. This has been 3D modelled to prove feasibility. • Using two donated spans from the former Great Western Main Line to the west of , which were removed in April 2011 by Network Rail when revamping the station as part of an £825 million project. These were originally planned to bridge the gap over the Midland Main Line, but are now planned to be deployed elsewhere in the project. This part is called the "Factory Flyover". • Add a 300 metre embankment between the canal bridge and the factory flyover. • Fix the embankment between the A60 bridge and the midland main line bridge. Once complete, the project will create a combined heritage railway. ==Implementation==

After the UK Government's announcement in 2012 that the Midland Main Line would be electrified by 2018, the project timescales to be completed or not were implemented. In 2013, the GCR engaged Network Rail to act as project engineers, project manager and main contractor to complete the project. In June 2013, the GCR and Network Rail signed an agreement to allow bridging of the Midland Main Line, including the underlying operations, maintenance and legal liability agreements for such. Preliminary works began January 2014 with boreholes being drilled in preparation for the bridge over the Midland Main Line at Loughborough. In July 2014, the GCR received a one million pound grant from the UK Government's "Local Growth Deal", via an allocation to the Leicester and Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership; the grant will support the GCR's "Bridging the Gap" project. Planning application On 15 April 2014 a planning application was submitted by Great Central Railway PLC with Network Rail acting as agents for "Installation of rail bridge over midland mainline"; which was granted on 27 June 2014. The bridge was envisioned as being single-track and made of two spans and a central supporting pillar in the middle. On 10 February 2015 a non-material minor amendment was applied for in order to allow construction using a single-span bridge design "to remove [the] central pillar"; which was granted by Charnwood Borough Council on 26 March 2015. A two-span design had originally been proposed in order to enable reuse of bridge components removed during the rebuilding of Reading station. Contracts and legals Although the GCR owns the track from Loughborough to Leicester North, the underlying land is owned by Charnwood Borough Council, on a 99-year lease signed in 1976. Bridges over or under Network Rail infrastructure must be owned by organisations which can provide suitable legal liability to any incidents which may occur as a result of operations, which means to meet this requirement the owning organisation needs to have a minimum net present value of over £250M. As the GCR can not clearly meet this criterion, after contract negotiations, it was agreed that Charnwood Borough Council will retain ownership of the land up to the southern abutment of the new bridge, whilst Network Rail will become the owner of the new bridge. The GCR will resultantly negotiate an operational lease agreement with Network Rail, which will define operational requirements which the GCR must comply with over the bridge. Midland Main Line bridge Preparatory work on the bridge over the Midland Main Line began on 12 February 2016 The bridge was expected to be completed in 2019. The bridge had last carried trains in 1969. A60 bridge In 2022, the A60 bridge was completely refurbished to allow trains on the GCR north to run again. ==References==