Some years ago, East Midlands Parkway station was built to partially serve this market, but is too far away from the airport to be attractive, and the railway station has significantly failed to attract passengers.

The Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA) believes that the airport would be much better served by use of TramTrains. These would run into the airport on a dedicated track, and could connect to the Midland Mainline both north and south. In the northerly direction, TramTrains could run to Toton, the site of the future HS2 East Midlands station.

At Toton, a connection could be made to the extended Nottingham Express Transit (NET) system, which would give a good distribution around the Nottingham area.

In the southerly direction, TramTrains could run to Leicester via Loughborough, operating on-street into Leicester city centre to form the basis of a larger Leicester area network. It has been proposed that the Leicester to Burton-on-Trent railway is reopened to passengers; this again would be better served by TramTrains to improve passenger distribution in Leicester.

This leaves Derby. A light rail line should be built westwards from Toton to Derby which would take both airport and HS2 traffic. It would also allow through Nottingham –Derby trams, which would help to relieve the overloaded A52 road. The LRTA has already produced outline proposals for a Derby tramway system.

We now have the basis of an East Midlands light rail system that would do much to improve connectivity and promote economic growth throughout the region.

The LRTA urges politicians and business leaders in the region to work together and have the vision to create a better East Midlands.