The line was built for the Midland Railway and the station opened on 2 October 1848.

[1] Gresley station was closed on 7 September 1964[1] but the line remains open for freight traffic.

From 1906 to 1927, a branch of the Burton and Ashby Light Railway terminated at the station.

In the 1990s BR planned to restore passenger services between Leicester and Burton as the second phase of its Ivanhoe Line project.

In 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies published a £49 million proposal to restore passenger services to the line that would include reopening a station at Gresley to serve the town of Swadlincote.