Bedford St Johns railway station

The station was opened in November 1846 by the Bedford Railway as the eastern terminus of its line from Bletchley, the first line to reach the town.[4] The station was on the west side of the A600 London Road (grid reference TL 052 489), with the main station buildings on the south side of the line facing the public house. The goods yard was further west nearer the River Great Ouse to receive river traffic. A second connecting line to the goods yard created a triangle which diverted drainage to produce a pond which supplied the station and small two-road locomotive shed.[5]

Signalling diagram from the former Bedford No1 signal box (L&NWR)

A second station was opened in Bedford in 1857 on the Midland Railway's Leicester to Hitchin line. The route chosen by the Midland took it across the earlier line at a point near the Bletchley end of the triangle, and a level crossing was built. In March 1875, a Midland passenger train collided with the rear coaches of a Bedford service, killing one passenger and injuring four others. The subsequent enquiry identified a badly-positioned Bedford starter signal as a major cause of the accident. To remedy the problem a 29-lever signal box was opened in 1877 to control new interlocked signals, and block signalling was introduced throughout the Bedford line, which had been extended to Cambridge.[6]

Original station in June 1962

An Oxford-bound train in October 1967, shortly before withdrawal of this service

The site of the original station in 2018

Although the Second World War saw the Oxford-Cambridge line handle unprecedented levels of traffic, it suffered from a lack of investment in the post-war years. The 1955 Modernisation Plan proposed improvements to the line, believing it could be a strategic cross-country route for freight across three British Railways regions without having to pass through London. The policy was however to change within a few years, leaving the Bletchley Flyover as a testament of the change of course. The first attempt to close the line came in 1959, but was unsuccessful in the face of local opposition. Hopes for the line thereafter rose when it did not figure in the Beeching Report, but it was nevertheless proposed for closure in 1964, with the Oxford — Bletchley and Bedford — Cambridge routes closing after the last day of service on 30 December 1967.[4]

The Bletchley - Bedford route, now known as the Marston Vale Line, survived in a downgraded form as freight facilities were withdrawn and the stations became unstaffed halts. The station, now a terminus, came under the authority of then area manager at Bedford Midland. By March 1971 the main station buildings and water tower had been demolished, leaving it as a terminus halt.[7] A third attempt to close the line in 1972 was resisted by the Bedford Rail Users' Association.

In 1984, a replacement station was opened in the former freight yard, at the north end of the triangle, which enabled services to continue to Bedford Midland. The new connection runs over the route of the Midland's Hitchin line, which closed in 1964.[8] The old station site was abandoned, although some of the furniture, such as the lampposts, was not removed. The site has now been reclaimed by nature.[9][10]

East West Rail is seeking to reinstate the entire Oxford to Cambridge route. Following a consultation process in 2019, the Company's preferred route between Bedford and Cambridge continues to use the current route via St Johns onto the Midland Main Line, then north via Bedford Midland before turning east towards Tempsford (rather than following the old Varsity Line alignment through the original Bedford St Johns station site).[11]