Future Rail Developments At Milton Keynes
The Milton Keynes area and its stations at Bletchley, Bow Brickhill, Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes Central and Wolverton, are in for a lot of development in the next few years.
The East West Rail Link
This map shows the East West Rail Link.
East West Rail Link
Note how it crosses the West Coast Main Line at Bletchley and has a connection to Milton Keynes Central.
The Wikipedia entry for Bletchley station has a section called Future. This is said.
The Marston Vale Line is the passenger carrying remnant of the Varsity Line. As of 2014, the line beyond Bletchley through Winslow to Bicester Town is closed to passenger traffic, with goods traffic going only as far as Newton Longville sidings for the waste disposal site there. The high level crossing (officially named the “The Bletchley Flyover” – built in 1959 as part of the Modernisation Plan, with 7 x 56 ft (17 m) spans and then expected to be used by 80 trains a day) over the WCML at Bletchley remains in place and in occasional use. There is a funded plan to re-open the line to passenger traffic via Bicester to Oxford by 2019 and an unfunded desire to rebuild it from Oxford right through to Cambridge. A key element of the plan is to build a Bletchley high level station so that passengers may transfer between the lines. (Note that there is no corresponding east to north route).
It is obviously, a bit out of date, as the East West Rail Link is now planned and funded to Bedford.
This Google Map shows the track layout at Bletchley with the Marston Vale Line joining from the East and Fenny Stratford station.
Bletchley Station And The East West Rail Link
Note.
- Stadium MK at the top of the map.
- The East West Rail Link can be seen curving to the west to the south of Bletchley station.
- The flyover over Bletchley station.
- Fenny Stratford station is to the south west of the large building at the east.
- The next station to the East is Bow Brickhill.
Bletchley will become a more important station.
East West Rail Link Services From Milton Keynes Central
The Wikipedia entry for Milton Keynes Central has a section called East West Rail. This is said.
From 2019, services are planned to operate (over a rebuilt East West Rail Link) to Oxford via Bletchley, Winslow and Bicester Town; and also to London Marylebone via Aylesbury and High Wycombe. Extension of the Oxford service to Reading has been mooted.
This will definitely need some more platforms at Milton Keynes Central, other than the single one 2A built for the still-born extended Marston Wale service to Milton Keynes.
I published some pictures in Platform Space At Milton Keynes Central, which show that there is some space.
Implications For Bletchley
I have now written The The Bletchley Flyover to cover the implications for Bletchley.
Great North Western To Blackpool
The Wikipedia entry for Milton Keynes Central has a section called Great North Western. This is said.
Great North Western Railway has been given permission to run 6 trains a day from London to Blackpool North from 2018, with conditional permission for a stop at Milton Keynes Central dependent upon future capacity after infrastructural work.
This will probably be very much a development, that will only affect Milton Keynes Central station.
Crossrail To Milton Keynes Central
The Wikipedia entry for Milton Keynes Central has a section called Crossrail. This is said.
Network Rail’s July 2011 London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) recommended diverting West Coast Main Line (WCML) services from stations between London and Milton Keynes Central away from Euston, to Crossrail via Old Oak Common, to free up capacity at Euston for High Speed 2. Doing so would provide a direct service from the WCML to the Shenfield, Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood, release London Underground capacity at Euston, make better use of Crossrail’s capacity west of Paddington, and improve access to Heathrow Airport from the north. Under this scheme, all Crossrail trains would continue west of Paddington, instead of some of them terminating there. They would serve Heathrow Airport (10 tph), stations to Maidenhead and Reading (6 tph), and stations to Milton Keynes Central (8 tph).
In August 2014, a statement by the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin indicated that the government was actively evaluating the extension of Crossrail as far as Tring and Milton Keynes Central, with potential Crossrail stops at Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Bushey, Watford Junction, Kings Langley, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Cheddington, Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley. The extension would relieve some pressure from London Underground and London Euston station while also increasing connectivity. Conditions to the extension are that any extra services would not affect the planned service pattern for confirmed routes, as well as affordability.
Extending Crossrail to Milton Keynes would seem to be a sensible idea.
It would increase the capacity and frequency of services between Milton Keynes and London and open up several more direct destinations.
The quote from Wikipedia talks of increasing connectivity to Crossrail.
- The Watford DC Line is joined is joined at Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Bushey and Watford Junction
- The Bakerloo Line is joined at Wembley Central and Harrow & Wealdstone
- The Metropolitan Line will be joined at Watford Junction.
This connectivity is in addition to that created by an Old Oak Common station.
As with the East West Rail Link, it will probably need extra platforms at Milton Keynes Central. But there is at least some space to create them.
Conclusion
Milton Keynes Central will be a lot bigger and busier than it is now.
But it will join that elite group of stations that are Crossrail’s and Thameslink’s super-hubs.
Report from Sir Peter Hendy to the Secretary of State for Transport on the Replanning of Network Rail’s Investment Programme
This report is crucial to a lot of reconstruction work continuing on railways in parts of the UK.
I’ve put the link, so I can find the report easily.
Here’s a taster of what the report contains.
This extract is entitled Case study – Aristotle Lane, Oxford and talks about the problems of closing a private level crossing in Oxford.
Network Rail planned to install a replacement footbridge over the Oxford to Banbury Line north of Oxford Station and close an adjacent private level crossing for safety reasons. People walking from a nearby car park, across some allotments to the other side of the tracks, used the level crossing. The new bridge will have a link to the allotments removing the need for people to cross the tracks.
The level crossing is not a public right of way and the rights to use it are owned by Oxford City Council. As part of the East West Rail (phase 1) improvement scheme, Chiltern Railways made an application in 2009 to close the level crossing as part of a wider project to upgrade the railway line.
Objections from allotment holders at the Public Inquiry meant that the approval was not granted. This meant that Network Rail needed to pursue a separate planning application in order to complete the work and deliver Marylebone to Oxford services.
Efforts to close the crossing and deliver the scheme continued. Meetings were held in 2012 between Network Rail, ORR and the Council to find a solution. Finally, in 2014 the principle to close this one level crossing was granted, but with the conditions that Network Rail had to fund and construct better access to the allotments, arrange a land swap so the local school could be expanded and to fund and build a new car park. All of these require further, and separate, planning permissions.
A planning application was submitted in May 2014 and approved a year later after three separate planning committee presentations. Construction of the bridge is now planned to start in January 2016 with completion in September 2016. The level crossing will then be closed seven years after the first application.
Kafka is certainly alive and well and living in Oxford.
For more information on this fiasco/farce/cock-up/vexacious litigation/waste of money (delete as appropriate!) read this article in the Oxford Mail, entitled Network Rail changes its plan for new Aristotle Lane bridge after protests.
Some of the comments are priceless.
I am very much of the opinion that all level crossings should be shut on safety grounds. If there are serious objections, then surely the railway should be closed until an agreed solution is negotiated.
A Better Experience In Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes has never been my favourite place, since I used to take my late son; George, to his boarding school, which inevitably meant a trip round the endless roundabouts. I was then mugged in the city by the street furniture, that I wrote about in A Pedestrian-Unfriendly City.
So when Ipswich were playing MK Dons, I thought I’d give the city one more chance.
These are a few observations.
- The London Midland train was filthy and swimming in beer. I would assume it was supporters going to London.
- There is no information at Milton Keynes Central station, as to how you get to the ground.
- Bus 1 from Milton Keynes Central station, drops you just a rather cluttered short walk from Stadium MK.
- There are no signs or maps for Away supporters, as to what is the best route.
- Someone told me, that if you drive to the ground, parking costs £7 and you have to pay on-line.
- I’ve never been to a British stadium before, where burger vans and tea stalls outside the ground, were conspicuous by their absence.
- Several of the larger restaurants outside serve gluten-free food.
- The stadium has some of the best handrails I’ve seen in a ground.
- Coming back I just missed a bus and had to wait half-an-hour for the next small but full bus in a freezing cold shelter. I’d have taken a taxi, but there was no sign of a taxi rank.
I’ve never seen a ground, where it is assumed that everyone comes by car or supporters coach before.
I would have been distinctly miserable if Ipswich hadn’t won!
Milton Keynes is going to have to improve the buses. The number one bus, that I caught links Stadiujm MK and Milton Keynes Hospital to the stations at Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley.
This Google Map shows the area of Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes Stations, Stadium MK And The Hospital
Milton Keynes Central station is in the North West corner, with Bletchley station st the bottom. The other station at the right is Fenny Stratford station on the Marston Vale Line, which will be incorporated into the East West Rail Link.
This map shows the route of the proposed line.
East West Rail Link
Wikipedia talks about extending the Marston Vale line to Milton Keynes Central, but although the track has been created, no trains have run.
Chiltern are also looking to extend their Aylesbury service to Milton Keynes Central via Bletchley, so hopefully this might prompt improvement in the bus services to Stdium MK and the Hospital.
I doubt it will, as Milton Keynes is one of those places where you’re a total loser, if you don’t have car and why should their taxes provide for better bus transport for the disabled, elderly and those that can’t drive.
I think we need a law in this country, that every hospital should have at least a four buses per hour direct service to the main railway and bus stations.
What Development Is Going On Around You?
I found Planning Finder through an on-line advert. I’ve just tried it for my home and it has found some interesting but innocent planning applications.
I would certainly use this web site to check out, where I was buying a house.
The Anonymous Widower 