I went through here a couple of weeks ago, going up to a business meeting alongside East Midlands airport.
Having no taxis available at such a remote location is just inappropriate for an "Inter-City" service, especially as arriving there at 10.00 on a weekday there must have been half a dozen or more from our train alone who wanted them and had to phone for them - and they didn't come that quickly because there's only one company allowed to pick up there; another who was bringing people in said they had to leave empty. Before we had got away the next St Pancras train came in and more people who wanted taxis came out. If your mobile phone has gone flat on the no-powerpoints HST on the way up, you would be absolutely stuffed, because there's no courtesy phone, just a number on a notice. It's got a staffed ticket office, a staffed buffet, people waiting for taxis - and a very poor taxi provision. I wonder how much the selected company is paying EMT for the sole rights to be there.
Going back in the afternoon I would say that maybe 40-50 passengers boarded.
The service pattern is poor as well, as described above not only are the two trains per hour just 7 minutes apart, but the first one has passengers from Sheffield, Chesterfield and Derby, and in our case this was just a 5-car Meridian, which after Leicester had about a dozen in our coach alone just standing. This train obviously scoops up most of those waiting for London. Right on the block behind is what turns out to be a full-length HST just from Nottingham (I waited at St Pancras to see it arrive), which came in with significantly less passengers.
It's not a convenient station for the airport, although several people were heading there, you can actually see the control tower in the distance but they are separated by not only a convoluted road approach but also by the M1 junction 24, one of the worst congestion points on the road network, which apparently can sometimes take half an hour to get clear of. On our return, having been in a jam for this almost as soon as we passed the airport area, the taxi driver resorted to going through the back streets of Kegworth and country lanes to get to the station.