The Loughborough Gap is a missing section of the Great Central Railway to the north-east of Loughborough, England. The gap was created by the removal of embankments and bridges during the 1980s and the restoration project has been branded Bridge to the Future and Bridging the Gap. From south-to-north the route crosses the Grand Union Canal, Railway Terrace road, a Factory car park, four-track Midland Main Line at Loughborough railway station and the A60 road. The Hermitage Brook watercourse runs parallel. During the 2010s work began to restore the link in order to join the northern and southern sections of two heritage railways back together giving a total Great Central Railway (heritage railway) line length of . , planning permission was granted for the first major component: a replacement 30-metre single-span bridge over the Midland Main Line. An additional station called Loughborough High Level will be built to connect with Loughborough (Midland) station on the Midland Main Line. , the bridge was intended to be owned by Charnwood Borough Council and then leased back to the Great Central Railway for one hundred years in exchange for maintenance costs. Work commenced in April 2017, with the main bridge beams being installed in September of that year. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2019. The replacement bridge was completed ahead of schedule in August 2018. However due to slight encroachment on the original trackbed, the bridge is slightly askew from the original alignment. Refurbishment has also been conducted on the canal bridge just beyond the existing train shed. Future work will see the embankment reinstated and the current train shed demolished and replaced by one close by as the shed occupies the main line alignment. In addition signalling will need be connected and updated to match the other preserved line. History As a relatively late-developed railway in the United Kingdom, the GCR was forced to make some expensive civil engineering choices in order to complete their route. Just north of , the railway had to cross the existing Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal, before then crossing the existing Midland Main Line formation as well as avoiding the Hermitage Brook, before moving northwards to Nottingham. Choosing to approach the location on a raised embankment, the railway engineers used a steel-decked span bridge to cross the canal and a double-deck, double-width steel-decked span bridge to cross the Midland Railway. After