In 1996 the group acquired its first UK rail franchises, Gatwick Express and Midland Mainline.

* Midland Mainline absorbed into East Midlands Trains franchise

Midland Mainline ( legal name Midland Main Line Limited, company no 3007934 ) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Midland Main Line franchise from April 1996 until November 2007.

Midland Mainline ran fast and semi-fast passenger services from London to the East Midlands and Yorkshire, on the Midland Main Line.

InterCity Midland Mainline were probably the forgotten operator in the 1990s.

All this changed in 1999 when Midland Mainline introduced a new timetable and new trains.

* All Midland Mainline services ( except The Master Cutler morning up service ) called at Leicester with the fastest journey time to and from London of 1 hour 9 minutes.

Midland Mainline rail bus link ran between Corby town centre and Kettering railway station

Midland Mainline operated a limited service between St Pancras and Leeds, with three early morning departures from Leeds and four evening return trips from St Pancras.

Midland Mainline had plans for a regular service between St Pancras and Leeds via Nottingham, the Erewash Valley Line, Sheffield and Barnsley but these were rejected by the Strategic Rail Authority.

Midland Mainline operated weekend services between St Pancras and York via Doncaster.

From May 2003 until September 2004 Midland Mainline operated an hourly service between St Pancras and Manchester Piccadilly at the request of the Strategic Rail Authority whilst the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Manchester underwent engineering work using former Virgin CrossCountry High Speed Trains.

Former Virgin Cross-Country High Speed Trains were used and after overhaul were repainted into Midland Mainline livery.

Categorised as a long distance operator Midland Mainline compared favourably to other operators in its category.

The last performance figures for Midland Mainline published by the Office of Rail Regulation were a Public Performance Measure of 92. 9 % for the third quarter of the financial year 2007 / 8 and a Monthly Annual Average of 92. 4 %.

Midland Mainline was also awarded Passenger Operator of the Year 2006.

Midland Mainline trains boasted a buffet car, known as the MM's Bar, which served hot and cold food and drinks.

Midland Mainline was the only operator to offer complimentary free tea and coffee to all passengers, including those in standard class.

Midland Mainline inherited a fleet of High Speed Trains from British Rail.

In October 1997 Midland Mainline ordered seventeen Class 170 Turbostar trains to operate stopping services.

In February 2002 Midland Mainline ordered sixteen four-carriage and seven nine-carriage Class 222 Meridian trains based on the Virgin Cross Country Class 220 Voyager, but with developments to improve passenger comfort and address some of the criticisms aimed at the Voyager.

To cover for a shortage of High Speed Trains Midland Mainline hired two Fragonset Class 47s to top and tail a HSBC Rail Mark 2 set on a morning service from Nottingham to St Pancras and evening return to Sheffield from February until October 2002.

From the Big Spring, the war trail continued south via three branches, one to the southeast through the western part of the Concho country ; one going almost due south, heading for Castle Gap and Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River ; and one heading west to Willow Springs in the sand country southwest of present Midland, before turning south down the Pecos, all headed ultimately for Mexico.

The London Midland & Scottish Railway Company continued to exist as a legal entity for nearly two years after Nationalisation, being formally wound up on 23 December 1949.

Nevertheless, the majority of designs continued to be very much Midland in character.

Expansion of the network continued and in 1889 permission was granted for a line from Beighton, where the MS & LR crossed the Midland, to Annesley.

The champions of the Midland Combination, West Midlands ( Regional ) League and Leicestershire Senior League have continued to gain promotion to the Alliance, although in 2008 the new East Midlands Counties Football League was formed at the Step 6 level and it is anticipated that successful teams from the Leicestershire Senior League, which is officially a Step 7 league, will now move up to the new league and that the champions of the new league may in turn move up to the Alliance if they fall within its coverage area.

The main tunnel runs from Anchor to Midland ATE in Hill Street, from there the tunnel continued under New Street Station and on to the exchange in Essex Street.

His financial backers did not approve of his continued research and fired him from the Midland Chemical Company.

As deliveries continued allocations were made to both the London Midland Region and Eastern Region, and with the class becoming familiar to crews and staff around London they were used on freight trains over the Metropolitan Widened Lines, locos so used being fitted with London Transport tripcocks – although these were removed after closure of this route in 1971.

The Belfast hotel, now known as the Midland Station Hotel continued to prosper and additional bedrooms were added in 1905.

The 4-6-0 arrangement was used extensively by all of the " Big Four " companies, especially by the Great Western Railway and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway who continued to develop new designs.

They also powered Jordan in 2005, and when the team changed their name to Midland F1 in 2006, Toyota continued to supply engines to them.

In November 1969 the first flight to London Heathrow was operated by British Midland — this route continued operating until 28 March 2009.

The traditional Alexender ’ s blue and cream livery was retained for Midland ’ s fleet, and some longer distance single deck vehicles continued to wear the bluebird logo that was used by Alexander ’ s coaching operations.

Midland Scottish, itself a fellow SBG subsidiary and once also part of the Alexander's company, had continued to use the same logo, and as it rebranded itself as Midland Bluebird, Northern Scottish began trading as Bluebird Northern.

The now-closed and lifted Midland line continued west of Ilkley via Addingham, Bolton Abbey and Embsay to Skipton.

Following nationalisation in 1948, BR had continued to build carriages to the designs of the " Big Four " companies ( the Great Western, Southern, London Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern railways ), and the Mark 1 was intended to be the standard carriage design for use across all lines, incorporating the best features of each of the former companies ' designs.

In 1980, the Bank, now under the chairmanship of Michael Sandberg, acquired a 51 % stake in Marine Midland Bank, of the United States of America, and continued its expansion with the establishment of Hongkong Bank of Canada in 1981 and HongkongBank of Australia Limited in 1986.

The bank continued to operate under the Marine Midland name until 1998, when the branch offices were rebranded as HSBC and the legal name changed to HSBC Bank USA N. A ..

This continued despite the Grouping of the LNW and Midland Railways to form the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1921, and subsequent nationalisation to form British Railways.

Prior to November 2007, the station was managed by Midland Mainline, who continued to refurbish the station with the installation of a large electronic departure board in the station entrance hall and smaller boards on all platforms.

From Midland east, M-24 continued along today's M-47.

Despite this, the Midland route continued to carry most of the traffic to and from the town, especially after it was electrified in 1908 – see below.