Flitwick railway station

Flitwick railway station is in the centre of Flitwick, in Bedfordshire, England. The station is situated on the Midland Main Line. The station is managed by Thameslink, who operate all trains serving it, and is served by Thameslink route services between Bedford and Brighton. As well as Flitwick itself, the station also serves the adjoining town of Ampthill, which no longer has its own station.

Flitwick
View across Flitwick station towards the main building on the Down side, 13 January 2007
Location
PlaceFlitwick
Local authorityDistrict of Central Bedfordshire
Coordinates52.004°N 0.495°W / 52.004; -0.495
Grid referenceTL034350
Operations
Station codeFLT
Managed byThameslink
Number of platforms4
DfT categoryD
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 1.451 million
2015/16 1.480 million
2016/17 1.518 million
2017/18 1.587 million
2018/19 1.631 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Flitwick from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

From Flitwick, trains travel north and serve Bedford and southbound trains serve Luton, Luton Airport Parkway, Harpenden, St Albans, London St Pancras, Gatwick Airport and Brighton.

History

It was built by the Midland Railway in 1870 on its extension to St. Pancras. The original station buildings were restored in the early 1980s.[1]

There were originally platforms for two lines. This remained the case when the line was quadrupled. The up goods opened in 1893 and extended to Harlington in 1894; and the down goods opened in 1895. It was not until 1960 that British Railways added extra platforms to cater for extended stopping services between Bedford and London.[2]

Services
Looking south towards the footbridge, from outside the main building on Platform 4
Up direction freight at Flitwick in 1955

The typical off-peak service from this station is:

Currently, services at Flitwick are operated using Class 700 EMUs.

Facilities

Flitwick station has a waiting room, take away cafe, newsagent, telephones, toilet and a car park.

The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving. It is in the same area as Harlington station.

There are two entrances to the station: one into the ticket office from Steppingley Road and the other directly onto the footbridge from Dunstable Road, which in 2016 had gates installed restricting access to the now manned ticket office through the night.

References
  1. Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books
  2. Preston Hendry, R., Powell Hendry, R., (1982) An historical survey of selected LMS stations : layouts and illustrations. Vol. 1 Oxford Publishing
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Thameslink
Thameslink
Thameslink
Thameslink fasts (peak trains)
Historical railways
Line open, station closed
Midland Railway
Line and station open
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