Bletchley railway station

• On 14 October 1939, an express passenger train was in a collision with another train. Five people were killed and more than 30 were injured.[4]

Bletchley, in common with other stations on this line, is covered by the Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership, which aims to promote the line by encouraging local users to take an active interest in it.[6]

East West Rail
Cherwell Valley line to Didcot and Reading Oxford Cherwell Valley line to Banbury Oxford Parkway Islip Bicester Military Rly Bicester Village Western Section Phase 1 Phase 2 Chiltern Mainline HS2 to Euston HS2 to Birmingham Interchange London–Aylesbury line to Marylebone Aylesbury Aylesbury Vale Parkway Winslow West Coast Main Line to Euston Bletchley Flyover Bletchley Fenny Stratford Milton Keynes Central Bow Brickhill West Coast Main Line to Glasgow Woburn Sands Aspley Guise Ridgmont Lidlington Millbrook Not all stations between Bedford and Stewartby Blechley are expected to be served by East Kempston Hardwick West Rail services[7]   Midland Main Line to St Pancras Bedford St Johns Bedford Western Section Central Section Midland Main Line to Sheffield East Coast Main Line to Sandy and King's Cross Tempsford[nb 1] East Coast Main Line to St Neots and Edinburgh Cambourne Cambridge line to Hitchin West Anglia Main Line to Liverpool Street Cambridge South[nb 2] Cambridge Central Section Eastern Section Dullingham Cambridge North Newmarket Waterbeach Ipswich–Ely line not to be used by EWR Kennett Ely Bury St Edmunds Thurston Ely–Peterborough line Elmswell Fen Line King's Lynn Shippea Hill Lakenheath Not all stations Brandon between Cambridge Thetford and Great Yarmouth are Harling Road expected to be served by Eccles Road East West Rail services[7]   Attleborough Spooner Row Wymondham   Great Eastern Main Line Stowmarket not to be used by EWR   Needham Market Bittern Line Norwich Brundall Gardens Brundall Ipswich East Suffolk line to Felixstowe branch line Lingwood Acle Manningtree Mayflower line to Harwich Town Great Eastern Main Line Great Yarmouth
New station with location and final name to be decided New station not directly linked to EWR scheme

East West Rail is a major project to establish a strategic railway connecting East Anglia with Central, Southern and Western England.[8] In particular, it plans to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford. This aspect of the plan reuses the route of the former Varsity Line, extensively re-engineered.[9] The project includes a spur to Aylesbury.[10] There is a funded, scheduled, plan to re-open this route to passenger traffic via Bicester to Oxford by 2025 and an unfunded plan to re-open the entire route between Oxford and Cambridge. A key element of the plan is to extend Bletchley station up to the flyover and build high level platforms so that passengers may transfer between the lines.[10] The new platforms are to be specified as suitable for trains no longer than four cars.[10]^:27

The Bletchley Flyover from Oxford by-passes the original Bletchley station, leading east towards Bedford or north to join the WCML at a junction north of the current (low-level) station. It was built in 1959 as part of the 1955 British Rail Modernisation Plan. At the time it was expected to carry as many as 80 trains a day;[11] however it is no longer in use (as of November 2020). In April 2020, work began to remove the sections of the flyover crossing the WCML.[12] From 5 July 2020, in a project expected to last three months, work began on replacement of the sections crossing Buckingham Road (on the east side of WCML).[13][14] In total, 14 of the flyover's 37 spans will need to be replaced.[12] As of October 2020, this phase of the programme of works at Bletchley is planned for completion in 2022.[9][15]

As part of a project to regenerate Bletchley as a whole, Milton Keynes Council has proposed the creation of a new eastern pedestrian access to the station by extending the existing platform overbridge across the tracks to reach Saxon Street. The proposed eastern entrance is to open out into a new station square and a transport interchange where an at-grade pedestrian crossing across Saxon Street would give access to the town centre and bus station.[16] In the longer term it is planned to construct an underground concourse to link the eastern and western station entrances.[16]

Following approval on 29 November 2011 of the western section of East West Rail between Oxford and Bedford via Bletchley, the route was expected to open in 2019.[17][18][19][20] The plan provides for new high level platforms to be built on the Bletchley Flyover as the line has no direct route through the existing station without reversing.[21]

On 7 July 2014, the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership announced that the Government had allocated £64.6 million funding for various projects that includes a £1.5 million contribution towards the cost of this work.[22] However, as of October 2018, work on the high-level platforms or the Saxon Street entrance had yet to begin.

In July 2017, Network Rail began a public consultation on the details of its proposals for the Bicester–Bedford section of East West Rail.[23] The consultation documents provide detailed drawings for the high-level platforms but do not include any details about the station itself.[24][lower-alpha 2]

As part of the programme that includes removal and replacement of the Flyover, work further around the curve is scheduled to build two new high-level platforms, to be connected to the main station. Engineering completion of these new platforms is anticipated for Spring 2022.[15] As of November 2020, a date for start of services remains to be announced.