loughborough station is a mainline station serving the town. in 2012, network rail redeveloped the station increasing the length of the platforms and improving access; concurrently, the local council made improvements to the surrounding area. east midlands railway is the primary operator providing services on the midland main line south to leicester, bedford, luton and london st pancras stations and north to lincoln, derby, sheffield, leeds and york stations. the link to london is twice-hourly and provides a link to europe via eurostar. leicester and derby stations allow transfers to crosscountry trains running between the north-east of scotland and the south-west of england.