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.

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.

The Midland Railway also had works at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, which had been inherited from the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway.

Initially, the Midland concentrated on maintaining and improving the somewhat varied fleet that it had inherited, with the assistance of The Railway Foundry in Leeds.

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway ( LMS ) inherited several styles of coaching stock from its constituents.

They are often associated with the Midland Division, i. e. the lines inherited from the former Midland Railway.

It inherited the eastern operations of Alexanders ( Midland ) based in Perth, Crieff, Blairgowrie and Pitlochry, as well as the southern operations of Alexanders ( Northern ) in Dundee, Forfar, Arbroath and Montrose.

Following the formation of the new East Midlands rail franchise on November 2007, the entire fleet of Class 222 Meridians was inherited by East Midlands Trains who operate the expanded East Midlands rail franchise including all those routes previously run by Midland Mainline.

This was the original experimental shunter, nominally rebuilt from a Midland Railway steam locomotive originally built in September 1892 by the Vulcan Foundry, whose number it inherited ( 1831 ), though very little of the steam locomotive was actually re-used.

This was the first experimental diesel shunter of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway ( LMS ) — the company which pioneered diesel shunting in the UK — nominally rebuilt by the former Midland Railway's Derby Works from a 1377 Class 0-6-0T steam locomotive originally built in September 1892 by the Vulcan Foundry, whose number it inherited ( 1831 ), though very little of the steam locomotive was actually re-used.

Consequently, the new club were to play at Middlefield Lane with Town's Leicester Road set up being used as a training ground, and once the FA and Southern League had approved the merger, United inherited Town's Southern League Midland Division place.

In 1880, the O & W inherited the Oswego-New York corridor as well as the branches to Ellenville, Delhi and New Berlin, New York from the New York & Oswego Midland, which had constructed the lines.

The aesthetic aspects inherited from the K class were the former Midland Railway engineer James Clayton ’ s contributions to the design, creating a simple, functional locomotive similar to the N class.

* Midland Red, the fleet and trading name used by the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company ( BMMO )

Midland Mainline's fleet consisted of the following trains at the time they ceased operating.

CM1 would service big sports commitments and other large events around the Midland region such as the snooker at Sheffield, Grand Prix from Silverstone Race Track, Songs of Praise and many others and it was an integral part of the BBC's nationwide TV OB fleet.

Midland Mainline supplemented its fleet with Class 222 Meridian units ( similar to Virgin Cross-Country's Class 220 and 221 Voyager trains ), replacing the slower Class 170 Turbostar units.

The origins of the Class 40 fleet lay in the prototype diesel locomotives ( Types D16 / 1 ordered by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and British Railways and D16 / 2 ordered by British Railways between 1947 and 1954 ) and most notably with the Southern Region locomotive No. 10203, which was powered by English Electric's 16SVT MkII engine developing 2, 000 bhp ( 1, 460 kW ).

The London Midland Region was only too pleased as the Eastern Region's decision released additional locomotives to replace their ageing steam fleet, Class 40 managing Camden bank, just north of Euston, with apparent ease.

The former London Midland and Scottish Railway 10A depot has workshops for steam and diesel locomotives, and also carriage and wagon facilities to maintain the companies fleet of Mark 1 & 2 carriages.

A revolutionary change took place when the Midland built a small fleet of 2-8-0 tender engines to handle the heaviest freight trains — the unique S & DJR 7F 2-8-0 series — with Walschaerts valve gear and the greatest tractive effort ever delivered by a Derby locomotive, with the exception pf the " Lickey Banker " 0-10-0.

In 1971 the Oxford to London coach operator South Midland ( established as South Midland Transport & Touring Company Ltd in 1921 ), which had been controlled by the neighbouring Thames Valley Traction company, was transferred to City of Oxford and the fleet name for the entire operation became Oxford South Midland.

It was formed in March 1985 from parts of Walter Alexander & Sons ( Midland ) Ltd and Central SMT, initially with six depots and a varied fleet of 381 vehicles.

It was the largest of the four new companies created by the SBG in 1985, with an initial fleet of 381 vehicles, of which almost 300 were sourced from the former Alexander ( Midland ) fleet.

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.

The Midland region was always short of top-link motive power and the Clan Class proved to be a very welcome addition to the fleet.

During 2008 the London Midland fleet received London Midland livery.

The previous shops complex was sold to Archer Daniels Midland ( ADM ) for use as a railcar cleaning and repair shop for ADM's large fleet of rolling stock.

London Midland maintain their fleet of Class 350 EMUs at the Siemens depot just to the north of the station, as well as maintaining a Train Crew Depot at the station.

The last of the Class 350 / 2 fleet ( 350267 ) was officially delivered to London Midland on 30 July 2009.