The passenger service on the line was discontinued in 1964, and much of the mining-based industry has closed down; quarrying is the dominant residual originating traffic.

Its commercial activity generated a huge demand for coal and other materials, but there were limitations due to poor transport links from collieries.

[1] The collieries of West Leicestershire were nearer but lacked an efficient transport medium, relying on animal power on inadequate roads.

The line included a tunnel just over a mile in length, and two rope-worked inclined planes because of the difficult terrain.

The Leicester and Swannington company was under commercial pressure from other, competing railways and pits in the Erewash Valley and elsewhere, and it became known that it was susceptible to being purchased.

[5] As well as controlling the north-south main line through Leicester (the "Midland Main Line") the Midland Railway also had the former Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway, which ran south-west to north east through Burton; the two routes formed an inverted V, with the apex at Derby.

)[6] The Midland’s plan therefore was to build to Burton from a junction with the L&SR at Long Lane (which later became known as Coalville), joining the LS&R there.

The portion of the L&SR incorporated into this route was between Long Lane and Desford, and it included one of the rope-worked inclines on a 1 in 29 gradient.

[7] The opening of the line was a huge boost to the Leicestershire collieries, which were able to send their coal cheaply to all parts.

The new line passed through an area already active in mineral extraction and industry, and from the outset and throughout the following years, a number of connections to these sites were established.

The lines formed a triangle, and the eastern apex was named Birmingham Curve Junction.

The West Bridge terminus was considered disgraceful for many years, and on 13 March 1893 it was replaced by a passenger station on a slightly different site.

[15] The area immediately to the east of the junction at Burton was exceptionally rich in minerals, chiefly coal but also a fine grade of fireclay as well as brickmaking and pottery clay and other materials.

It was a simple branch line about two miles long, and it opened to goods and mineral traffic on 2 October 1848, and to passengers on 1 July 1851.

[17][18][11][16] A little further east, another branch from the Leicester to Burton line was constructed, to a place named Wooden Box, opening by September 1851.

[17][16] There remained a short gap between the new Woodville station (which was a terminus served from the north-east) and the old line to the original station, and powers were obtained to build a line closing the gap on 17 June 1878; construction was rather delayed and the section opened to all traffic on 1 September 1884.

[17][18][16] In the early 1960s, a large marshalling yard was built a short distance from Swadlincote Junction, when Cadley Hill Colliery, dating from 1860, was modernised.

A wooden platform was erected at the extremity for the benefit of the Earl of Carnarvon, whose seat was at Bretby Hall.

Passenger train services were withdrawn in 1931 and, except for a short stub, the line closed entirely in 1971.

On returning the line to the London Midland and Scottish Railway,[note 3] it was closed from Ashby to Lount in 1945, although sections nearer Derby lasted longer.

A complication is that the northward spur at Knighton Junction, where trains would turn north towards Leicester, has been dismantled, after 6 August 1967, [27] and built over.