Bow Brickhill railway station

Bow Brickhill railway station is a railway station that serves the village of Bow Brickhill in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, and the Caldecotte, Tilbrook and Walton areas of south-east Milton Keynes itself. It is on the Bletchley — Bedford Marston Vale Line, about 2 miles (3.25 km) east of Bletchley.

Bow Brickhill
LocationBow Brickhill, Milton Keynes
England
Coordinates52.004°N 0.696°W / 52.004; -0.696
Grid referenceSP895347
Managed byLondon Northwestern Railway
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeBWB
ClassificationDfT category F2
Key dates
30 November 1905[1]Opened
1 January 1917closed
1 May 1919opened
Passengers
2015/16 43,016
2016/17 40,626
2017/18 38,846
2018/19 43,410
2019/20 41,340
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station is served by London Northwestern Railway local services from Bletchley to Bedford. Services are operated using Class 230/1 multiple units. This station is one of the six stations serving the Milton Keynes urban area.[lower-alpha 1]

History

The London and North Western Railway opened Bow Brickhill station in 1905, significantly later than many other stations on the branch. It was one of seven halts built for the introduction of a steam rail motor service over the line.[1] It closed temporarily during the first World War as an economy measure, from Jan 1917 to May 1919. Bow Brickhill lost its staffing and gated level crossing to modernisation in the 1980s, and since then the station has been unmanned except for two security cameras operated from other stations.

Until 2004 Bow Brickhill was unique on the line for having staggered platforms. The purpose of this is so that road traffic on the level crossing is not held up by trains standing still in the platform. However recently a number of other stations on the line including Aspley Guise have been rebuilt to have their platforms staggered also as part of the Bedford-Bletchley route modernisation.

Bow Brickhill in 1962

Another oddity about Bow Brickill is that the road crossing here, the V10 Brickhill Street, has a roundabout immediately on either side of the crossing. This causes traffic jams whenever the crossing barriers are down, as each roundabout clogs with the traffic queue and remains so for up to ten minutes. Milton Keynes Council has a long-term plan for the level crossing to be replaced with a bridge, but the Transport and Works Act Order for East West Rail exempts Network Rail from any obligation to provide such a bridge as part of its works on revitalising this line.[2]:318

Services

An hourly service is provided in each direction to Bletchley and to Bedford Monday to Saturday. There is no Sunday service.[3]

Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
London Northwestern Railway
Marston Vale Line
Mondays-Saturdays only

Community Rail Partnership

Bow Brickhill station, in common with others on the Marston Vale Line, is covered by the Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership,[4] which aims to increase use of the line by involving local people.

Location
Bow Brickhill station zoom in
Mapping © OpenStreetMap contributors

The station is on Brickhill Street (V10) near its junction with Station Road, about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) west of Bow Brickhill. The nearest post-code is MK17 9FH.[5] In the chainage notation traditionally used on the railway, it is 2 miles 1 chain (2.01 mi; 3.24 km) from Bletchley station on the line to Bedford.[6]

References
  1. "Disused Stations - Bow Brickhill"Disused Stations Site Record; Retrieved 7 September 2016
  2. Martin Whitehead (1 October 2019). NETWORK RAIL (EAST WEST RAIL BICESTER TO BEDFORD IMPROVEMENTS) ORDER 201[ ]; APPLICATION FOR DEEMED PLANNING PERMISSION; APPLICATIONS FOR LISTED BUILDING CONSENT (PDF) (Report). Department for Transport (published 5 February 2020). Retrieved 19 February 2020. (Inspector's report)
  3. Table 64 National Rail timetable, May 2016
  4. Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership
  5. Streetmap.co.uk
  6. Engineer's Line References: Bletchley south junction to Bedford RailwayCodes.org

Notes
  1. The others are Wolverton, Milton Keynes Central, Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Woburn Sands.
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