The Robin Hood Line is a railway line running from Nottingham to Worksop, Nottinghamshire, in the United Kingdom. The stations between Shirebrook and Whitwell (inclusive) are in Derbyshire. Passenger services are operated by East Midlands Railway. The line in its present form opened to passengers in stages between 1993 and 1998. Following the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, the line had been freight-only. The cuts had left Mansfield as one of the largest towns in Britain without a railway station. History The majority of the current Robin Hood Line re-uses the former Midland Railway (MR) route from Nottingham to Worksop. However, due to rationalisation leading to track removal in order to save the costs of maintaining the tunnel north of Annesley, the through route was severed in the 1970s. Northwards from Nottingham, the freight-only line remained intact as far as Newstead, where it had served the now closed Newstead Colliery. Southwards from Worksop, the line followed the old MR route as far as Sutton-in-Ashfield. Between Sutton-in-Ashfield and Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the line was diverted in 1972 to take the former Great Northern Railway (GNR) route through the area. This allowed British Rail to sell land right in the centre of Kirkby-in-Ashfield whilst keeping a freight route through the town. After crossing the town on the GNR route, the line re-joined the old MR route to Pye Bridge, near Ironville but the connection between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Newstead was closed and the tunnel filled in. When plans for the Robin Hood Line were drawn up, it was vital in the interest of keeping costs down to make as much use of the existing infrastructure as possible so, rather than trying to buy back the land to rebuild the line through the centre of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the existing GNR diversion was kept and a new single track stretch of railway built to re-create the missing link between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Newstead. North of Newstead, at Annesley, both the Great Central Railway (GCR) and the Midland Railway had driven tunnels through the picturesque Robin Hood Hills but, since both lines closed, both tunnels had been filled in. The GCR's tunnel had been at a lower level than the MR's and so was much longer. It therefore proved cheaper to re-excavate the MR's tunnel, which was found to be in excellent condition. The new service from Nottingham to Newstead opened in 1993, although Bulwell station opened only in 1994.