Fairly easy to navigate. Plenty of staff around to ask questions or for help. Busy stop to…read moreairport is directly outside and come fairly regularly

I used Derby Railway Station as a connection on a journey from Manchester Piccadilly to Leicester,…read moreit is a fairly small station with only seven platforms, but with Derby only being a very small city with a population of around 250,000, this is pretty understandable. The station is operated by East Midlands Trains, which did cause some confusion in the past with Yelp merging the two listings by mistake, for anyone reading this confused, British railway stations which aren't the busiest, major stations such as Manchester Piccadilly and most in London, are often operated by local railway operators who mainly use the station, in this case East Midlands trains operate this station, so the staff you'll see around often have jackets with that provider on, in a similar way Brighton Station is operated by Southern Railway. Other providers serving the station include Northern and Cross Country. Being on the Midland Main Line, East Midlands Trains offer serves to East Midlands Parkway (for the airport), Leicester, Chesterfield etc and Cross Country offer services on their Reading-Newcastle and Cardiff-Nottingham routes, which, as well as the named cities, also call at Birmingham and Sheffield. Sadly, there are no direct routes to Manchester with the best routes being an East Midlands service to Stoke On-Trent or Sheffield or a Cross Country service into Birmingham New Street and then onto there, the services into London are also pretty infrequent and although you can get an East Midlands service into St Pancras, arriving in just over 90 minutes it is again better to go into Birmingham. It is located rather close to Pride Park Football Stadium, home to Championship side Derby County, who potentially could be in the Premier League with a playoff win over Aston Villa at the end of the month, making it quite an easy ground to get too, so good luck to them on their promotion quest. The station seemed quite clean, and the staff in the station seemed nice, the bridge was quite modern considering at most other stations including nearby Sheffield they tend to be a little grubby and ugly. There isn't a lot of businesses inside the station, there is a Costa and WHSmith which are pretty much regulars to train stations in the UK, especially the latter. A clean train station, mainly offering local services, just over half an hour from Birmingham and Sheffield where you can get loads more trains to carry on your journey. 3*

East Midlands Railway, owned by Abellio is the replacement for the similarly named East Midlands…read moreTrains, operating the East Midlands railway franchise. Many of its' routes go into London St Pancras while it also serves cities such as Derby, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, York and even Norwich. While it provides slow routes compared to rivals travelling from Manchester to Liverpool, or Manchester to Sheffield it is the main route provider on many other occasions including Manchester to Norwich. I am impressed with some of the immediate changes with the new franchise - The new livery is smarter and looks good as I noticed the former East Midlands Trains to just become ugly, dirty and outdated so that really is an improvement to the network. I do think it's a shame that many trains haven't been fully refurbished, however. - Delay Repay has been extended to cover a 15-minute delay rather than the industry average and the only legal amount they'd have to cover of 30 minutes anyway. Other new franchises including Avanti West Coast are doing this too, but it's still a step in the right direction and I hope more companies start doing it too. I like EMR's assisted travel policy for disabled passengers, again they allow customers guaranteed assistance if booked within twelve hours of travel with a good online form, compared to 24 hours notice being required by many other companies. This is really good compared to the likes of TPExpress who offer some similar routes (they offer the fastest travel between Manchester and Liverpool/Sheffield) who's online form always changes the train time and they require a full 24 hours notice. They also allow customers to book it over the phone too, again this is good for customers who might not be tech-savvy and it's open 24-7. I do think they need to train staff fully on this front as I have had online bookings ignored. Interestingly one of their main and longest routes of Liverpool to Norwich, which goes via Manchester which takes 5 hours and 24 minutes still takes around 3/4 of an hour longer than getting a service from Lime Street to Euston (Avanti West Coast) and from there getting the tube to Moorgate, walking half a mile to Liverpool Street station and then continuing on your journey with a greateranglia service from there. (I presume it could be down to having a slow route through the north at first with the train from Liverpool to Manchester taking almost double the length of a TPExpress train). The website again is one of the most professional I've seen in a railway company, it's so easy to use and the same can be said about the app - it is actually much better than Avanti West Coast which commenced in December 2019 and as of writing is the newest railway franchise in the UK. One of my first times travelling with EMR was from Manchester to Leicester, as obviously these cities aren't usually connected by railway it meant having to change trains at Sheffield, their main route which is from their cities and London St Pancras seems to have nicer trains which include First Class which sadly some of their longer routes serving the north of England and Norwich doesn't. I also travelled with EMR from Derby to Sheffield, there were some awful delays on the network however my service wasn't effected as it came from Kettering. The train was clean with a good First Class service including gluten-free shortbread biscuits. While the seat reservations failed to work with no apology or explanation, the wifi didn't dip out during my trip, I'd rather have slow consistent wifi than faster wifi which went down constantly, as it did with CrossCountry when I made the opposite journey. Overall, I was pretty pleased with EMR but bringing their Liverpool - Norwich route trains in line with the services going into London and Kettering is much needed. The staff on board are also great (most of the time). 4*

I used East Midlands Trains last weekend for a return trip up to Loughborough from London…read more The whole experience was pretty good - the train left spot on time in both directions, and the trains - modern 125mph diesels - were clean and comfortable. They weren't particularly busy, which helped, but the whole experience was incident free - as it should be. We managed to get a group booking which made the round trip cost £16 each - pretty good, I thought. The only gripe I have is that the Midland platforms at St Pancras always feel like an afterthought - the ticket office is downstairs, as are all the other facilities (like loos). There's a solitary cafe which feels like it was intended for Midlands passengers. It's OK in summer, but it feels very bleak in winter. East Midlands Trains is the name of the company that runs the trains services on the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. It took over the franchises of Midland Mainline and much of the area operated by Central Trains, last November (2007). Although I'm not a fan of Stagecoach, the ultimate operating company, I have to say it was all pretty good last week.

SUPERTRAM is Sheffield's modern day city centre railroad. Clean, warm, comfortable, affordable by…read moremost people and takes you from Sheffield City Centre to most of the city's leading attractions a lot quicker than travelling by bus or car. The only downside to Supertram is it does not serve all the outlying areas of Sheffield, nor does it serve the city's major hospitals.

Ten Million Pounds wasted on an Interchange, or if you prefer it's more used by title "Bus…read moreStation", that hardly anybody uses. Don't get me wrong, it's used, but not as much as it should be for the price it cost to build it, and all at the tax-payers expence. The bus shelters are long corridores with sliding electronic glass doors that allow you to get on and off the few buses that use the Interchange, the corridores are kept clean but they are cold due to there being no indoor heating system. Connected to the Interchange there is a medium size indoor building where you can purchase food, hot and cold drinks, newspapers and other stationary goods, there's clean toilet facilities as well which have CCTV installed. That must have been installed to make sure you pay your "PENNY" when opening the toilet door.

A small steam preservation railway running between Matlock and Rowsley, via Darley Dale, this is a…read moregreat half day stop if you are in this part of Derbyshire. The best parking and access is at Rowsley station, where staff are friendly and helpful. Wheelchair and buggy access is good, if not total, and there is a disabled access carriage normally in operation (if not, you have the option of the luggage carriage, where you also store buggies for the journey). Price wise, a family day ticket is less than £20, so not a bad price these days. The ride is a nice length, with some good scenery along the way. There is a small shop (not disabled accessible due to steps), and accessible toilets, at Rowsley.

The Square has just been redeveloped and very beautiful. Its where everyone seams to meet. In the…read moresummer time the beautiful people hang around there sunning themselves or paddleing in the water. In the winter the ice rink arrives, this is a must on a cold winters evening - open air skating - fantastic. The front of the Square faces on to the Council House building where the Little John bell is housed. The Old Market Square is supposedly where Robin Hood won the Silver Arrow in an archery compitition thrown by the Sheriff of Nottingham. At christmas time the Square plays host to the German Market where German vendors come to sell their goods. I recommend the German sausages with mustard. they are tasty.

So, they've just spent a lot of our money on it. They seem to have made it very skateboard…read morefriendly, - good for skateboarders, not so good for everyone else. The fountains and lights are pretty fancy. The place doesn't offend me - was it worth the twelve months of agro and the money. Well, probably, actually. The tram track development was central to the redevelopment of the market square. The trams are great - Nottingham has character again - and it's not related to gun crime! The selection of shops on the square is pretty good and varied - from Debenhams to Burtons, the obligatory Starbucks and Wetherspoons, but also all the main banks, Littlewoods, pound shops, Nottm tourist office, and of course the council house itself - The iconic lions still prowl and look on Nottingham! Nottingham pride

Worksop station is the major intermediate stop on the line between Sheffield, Retford and Lincoln,…read moreand the junction for trains on the 'Robin Hood' line to Nottingham. Opened in 1849 by the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Junction Railway, the station was provided with impressive and handsome stone buildings in the Jacobean Style. It became a junction in 1875 when the Midland Railway line from Mansfield opened, providing through services from Nottingham. This line closed in 1964, but was re-opened to Worksop in 1998. To-day, the attractive station buildings have survived intact and, although the station is not staffed all day, it appears very well maintained. Part of the original building on the south side is occupied by the Mallard pub (named after the famous world-record holding steam locomotive). The principal train service is the Sheffield-Lincoln service, which operates roughly hourly during week-days, with additional trains to Worksop in the peak hours. On Saturdays there are also occasional through services to Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Services on the line to Mansfield and Nottingham are also hourly. Both lines have a much reduced service on Sundays. The station has step-free access to both platforms (though access between them is via the road and level crossing - allow a good 5 minutes), and there are toilets and parking spaces, but no taxi rank or cycle storage. There are no refreshment facilities - but the adjacent pub provides some food, as well as excellent real-ales.

Worksop Railway Station is a fairly attractive and nice station, and I've had much worse…read moreexperiences waiting for trains! Although its not staffed all day, the station is relatively clean and tidy, and looks well looked after. Tickets can be booked in the ticket office, and on one of the platforms is a small café where you can buy drinks, snacks, and newspapers, which can the time pass. The near-by Mallard pub could also provide another method of passing the time! A surprisingly good station for a town the size of Worksop!

This place has recently undergone a makeover, which has made it look much more inviting. I would…read moreactually go as far as to say that I prefer this to Nottingham Central Library. It doesn't always look like it has the range of books (it specialised in local history) but having said that, I've never not been able to find a book. If there is something you want, but can't find, they'll order it for you. In the summer holidays there are often a lot of children/ teenagers playing on the computers and making a lot of fuss. It's not a bit problem as the staff handle them very well, and there used to be a children's play area with toys and books in, though I'm not sure if that's still there now. Overall, very good.