Milton Keynes Coachway

The Milton Keynes Coachway (also Milton Keynes coach station) is situated on the A509 road close to Junction 14 of the M1 Motorway on the eastern edge of Milton Keynes, north Buckinghamshire, England offering coach services to cities, towns and airports on the M1 corridor and on into Scotland, to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the east-west route to Oxford and Cambridge, as well as interchange facilities between these services. There are also local bus services and nearby, a park and ride site. It is the second busiest coach station in the United Kingdom. Dating from 1989, it was the first of the UK's Coachway interchanges.

Facilities
The coach station is situated by junction 14 of the M1 together with a park and ride site and has a café, a shop, toilets, cycle racks and facilities to book taxis and National Express Coaches. The parking areas includes 24-hour staffed security with CCTV coverage. Buses (including park and ride buses) are available to take passengers the final 6.5 km into the central area and to Milton Keynes Central railway station if required, but only between 05:30 and 23:00. Taxi and cab services must be telephoned for.

History


There has been a coach interchange at the junction of the M1 since April 1989, constructed by Buckinghamshire County Council (as the highway authority). By the early 2000s, the original building had become worn out and plans were begun to replace it with a new building, with funding support from the government.

In 2006 works were carried out on the M1 Junction 14 to widen the M1 slip road at the junction, install new traffic signals, create a dedicated left-turn lane from the A509 to the northbound M1, widen the southbound A509 to three lanes between J14 and Northfields roundabout and create a new access road to the park-and-ride and provision of new 500 space park-and-ride site. This work was in advance of the planned re-development of the coachway and park and ride site.

Plans for the new coachway were released in April 2008 and services were moved on a temporary basis to Silbury Boulevard. At that time it was expected that work would be completed by spring 2009. Facilities at the temporary site included a waiting room, café, ticket office, toilets, a shop with taxi booking facilities and approximately 60 adjacent parking spaces with CCTV and 24-hour on-site security. All local services along this section of Silbury Boulevard stopped at the temporary coachway.

In March 2009 it was announced that work would be delayed with completion expected in 'spring/summer 2010' due to higher than expected tender prices requiring the council to source a further £600K. Construction was managed by Milton Keynes Council until it was passed to the Homes and Communities Agency in September 2010. Work on the structure was underway by October 2009 when the steel frame could be seen from the motorway. The final fitting out was undertaken by National Express who operate the station on behalf of the council and the agency.

The new interchange opened on 13 December 2010. The cost of the project was £2.6 million funded by the Milton Keynes Partnership and the Growth Area Fund via the Department for Transport.