Biggleswade railway station

Biggleswade railway station serves the town of Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, England. It is on the East Coast Main Line, 41 miles 13 chains (66.24 km) from London King's Cross.[1] Biggleswade is managed and served by Great Northern.

Biggleswade
Biggleswade Station looking South
LocationBiggleswade, District of Central Bedfordshire
England
Grid referenceTL192443
Managed byGreat Northern
Platforms4
Other information
Station codeBIW
ClassificationDfT category D
Passengers
2015/16 0.992 million
2016/17 1.029 million
2017/18 1.058 million
2018/19 1.038 million
2019/20 1.034 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Biggleswade station was originally built in 1850 for the Great Northern railway. This made Biggleswade the first town in Bedfordshire to have a mainline railway station. The original station consisted of two lines but was rebuilt in 1901 to allow the present four line arrangement to be built.

Biggleswade has two large platforms and four main rail lines, a pair of "up and down" slow lines used by stopping services and a pair of "up and down" fast lines used by fast InterCity East Coast passing through at high speed and Great Northern services at peak times running non-stop to/from London. A fifth line extends off the "down" slow line which links into the remaining sidings used by the Plasmor block company.[2]

The station's platforms have been lengthened so that they can cope with 12 car trains, which are now serving the station. The station currently has four 12-car services in the morning and two in the evening. Larger numbers of 12-car services will serve the station following the completion of the Thameslink Programme.[3]

Facilities

Following a £60,000 refurbishment in July 2009 [4] by former franchise holder First Capital Connect [5] the station now has two waiting rooms on Platforms 1/2, and also a small cafe at the bottom of the stairs. Platforms 3/4 currently only have a small shelter. The station has another small cafe in the old station buildings, as well as a ticket office.

There are two modern touch screen ticket machines located in front of the booking office, and both sheltered and secure cycle storage is provided next to the station buildings. There are four helpoints located at various points in the station, including one in the main car park.

Biggleswade station does not currently have automatic ticket gates, and is unlikely to do so in the future, as with the current footbridge it is not possible.

Services

Biggleswade station is served by Thameslink services between Horsham and Peterborough via Blackfriars and St Pancras, every half hour in both directions. At weekends trains run to King's Cross (hourly on Sundays). There are additional fast services to/from London in the morning and evening weekday peaks.

History

Biggleswade station was once a busy goods yard with several sidings used for loading trains of market produce to be taken to London markets. The decline of this led to a reduction in the use of the station, and it is now used solely for passenger traffic. Plasmor Concrete Products Ltd owns the yard where the former goods depot was sited. These lines into the sidings are still active with train workings of breeze block bricks brought down from Heck to Biggleswade, where they are then unloaded onto lorries for distribution. The goods depot, stables and weighbridge office have all now been demolished but the old goods weighbridge remains on site as well as the remains of a luggage/parcels weighbridge next to the station building, although out of use.

Biggleswade also had a signal box but this was closed when semaphore signals were replaced in the early 1970s. The station was used as a Red Star parcel office but this was closed in the mid 1980s when parcel traffic was forced to use Stevenage station. The line through the station was electrified in 1988, as part of the wider ECML electrification scheme. Prior to that (from 1977–88), local services only operated between Hitchin & Huntingdon outside of peak hours. Local trains connected at Hitchin with the suburban services between King's Cross and Royston and through passengers had to change there.

The station entrance in 2006
Biggleswade railway sidings: Plasmor blocks

Route
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Thameslink
Peterborough to Horsham
Great Northern
Great Northern

References
  1. Padgett, David (October 2016) [1988]. Brailsford, Martyn (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 2: Eastern (4th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. map 15C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
  2. Yonge, John (September 2006) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 2: Eastern (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 15C. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 2012-03-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "£60,000 of improvements for railway station". www.allrailjobs.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  5. http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/Main.php?sEvent=News&sFileName=News.php&iId=180 Archived 18 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine

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