Milton Keynes Central railway station

Milton Keynes Central railway station serves Central Milton Keynes and the surrounding area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The station is located on the West Coast Main Line between the stations of Bletchley and Wolverton, both of which are also within Milton Keynes. The station is served by Virgin Trains inter-city services and by London Midland local services. Also, Southern provide services to South Croydon via West London.

This station is one of the five stations serving Milton Keynes. The others are Wolverton (north Milton Keynes), Bletchley (south Milton Keynes), Fenny Stratford (also south Milton Keynes) and Bow Brickhill (south-east Milton Keynes). In addition, Woburn Sands railway station is just outside the Milton Keynes boundary and serves the south-east of the Borough. Milton Keynes Central, which opened on 17 May 1982, is by far the busiest and most important of these, as well as being the largest in terms of platforms in use, having overtaken Bletchley when platforms 2A and 6 became operational. Ticket Gates are in Operation.

Platforms and layout


Milton Keynes Central has a total of seven platforms. Platforms 1 and 3 are the south and northbound slow platforms, while 4 and 6 are the south and northbound fast platforms. Platforms 2 and 5 are reversible, being slow and fast respectively. Platform 2 is frequently used by terminating services from London Euston and East Croydon, whilst platform 5 is used mainly by the London Midland service to Crewe. Platform 2A is a four-car south-facing bay platform built for the extension of Marston Vale Line services into Milton Keynes Central. The platform will also be used for Varsity Line services to Oxford and Aylesbury from 2017 (see 'Future Plans' below). To the north of the station the six lines reduce to four (two slow and two fast), whilst there is a mile of five-track running to the south before this also reduces back to four.

2006–08 developments
In May 2006, the Department of Transport announced a plan to upgrade the station. The first phase added a down fast line platform 6, so that the existing platform 5 could be used for stopping express trains in either direction. The second phase provided an additional terminating bay platform (2A) for the Marston Vale Line Bedford/Bletchley service via the WCML to Milton Keynes Central. This new 4-car bay platform is indented into platform 1. The original platform 1 line was extended northwards from 'bay' to 'through' (becoming the up slow line), and platform 2 line is now a 'centre' terminating and reversing line, avoiding conflicting crossing movements. This work was completed on 29 December 2008. However, Marston Vale Line services to Bedford are not expected to start before 2012 at the earliest.

Plans
The Government has approved (November 2011) reopening of the western section of the historic Varsity Line from Oxford, including extension of the service via Bletchley and the WCML to Milton Keynes Central, with a pattern of direct services from Milton Keynes to Oxford/Reading and Milton Keynes to Aylesbury/High Wycombe/London Marylebone. In April 2008, the Department for Transport responded to an e-petition for support on East West Rail by reiterating that they would encourage private funding.

Local facilities and interchange
The station is the terminus for many bus services and almost all intra-city buses stop there. These services are operated mostly by Arriva as well as some routes by Stagecoach and a number of independent operators. The frontage of the station has six bus stops, four for local services and two for long-distance services. Stagecoach operate three major long-distance routes from here. Their 99 coach route runs to Luton Airport via Luton railway station, providing a direct link between the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line. Their X5 coach route between Oxford and Cambridge stops here and their X4 interurban bus route to Northampton and Peterborough terminates here. Arriva operate routes 100 and 150 to Aylesbury. For National Express coach services, see Milton Keynes Coachway.

The station building is home to a shop and there are other shops and restaurants on the south side of the station square. There are a number of hotels on Midsummer Boulevard (which begins opposite the station and leads up into Central Milton Keynes). Numerous bus services each hour traverse Midsummer Boulevard, connecting the station to Midsummer Place and Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. The Milton Keynes redway system, a comprehensive network of cycle/pedestrian paths, connects to the station and its cycle parking facilities.

The station square itself is a favourite site for skateboarding and freestyle BMX and as a result the granite facings of the planting surrounds have suffered from the continuous bumping and grinding. This has lessened somewhat since the opening of a dedicated skateboarding park (Sk8 MK) close to the central bus station. At the end of June 2011, the Borough Council announced that work would begin in August 2011 to restructure the lanes immediately in front of the station, giving turnback facilities to taxis (on the one hand) and minicabs and private cars (on the other), with two through routes for buses and coaches with associated shelters.

Services


Milton Keynes Central is a principal stop on London Midland's services from Birmingham New Street to London and from Crewe to London Euston. All London-bound trains run to Euston, with some only stopping at Watford Junction and other with a more intermittent stopping pattern. The pattern is as follows (some peak hour and morning/evening services call also at Apsley, Kings Langley and Bushey):


 * xx.04 Watford Junction and London Euston
 * xx.21 Bletchley, Leighton Buzzard, Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction and London Euston
 * xx.41 Bletchley, Leighton Buzzard and London Euston
 * xx.47 Bletchley, Leighton Buzzard, Cheddington, Tring, Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction and London Euston

Northbound, London Midland's services operate to Northampton, Rugby and Coventry whilst the Crewe trains serve Nuneaton, Tamworth, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent. There are four departures per hour to London Euston on a weekday, and three departures per hour to the north.

Virgin Trains stop many of their inter-city trains here, with three services an hour in each direction off-peak on weekdays. These are the services to Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Chester. Additional services operate at other times to Liverpool Lime Street, Glasgow Central, north Wales and other destinations.

Since 2009 Milton Keynes has also been served by Southern, who provide an hourly service to South Croydon, running via west London and connecting with services to Brighton. Across the three operators, six trains per hour head north and eight south from the station.

From 2012 at the soonest services will operate direct eastwards onto the Marston Vale line to Woburn Sands and Bedford.

From 2017 services will operate over the East West Rail Link westwards via Winslow to Aylesbury, High Wycombe and London Marylebone and to Bicester Town, Oxford and Reading.

In film
The station and its plaza were used in the movie Superman IV as a substitute for the United Nations building. Other scenes were shot in the Central Milton Keynes area.