Leighton Buzzard railway station
Leighton Buzzard railway station serves the towns of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade in the county of Bedfordshire and nearby areas of Buckinghamshire. Actually situated in Linslade, the station is north west of London Euston and is served by London Northwestern Railway services on the West Coast Main Line. Until the 1960s the station was the start of a branch to Dunstable and Luton, with a junction just north of the present station. The station has four platforms. Platforms 3 & 4 are served by London Northwestern Railway's services to/from London Euston.
History
The first station simply known as 'Leighton' was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway on 9 April 1838, as part of the first section of its line from to Denbigh Hall. The line had originally been planned to pass through Buckingham but opposition from the Duke of Buckingham ensured that it was forced east along the Ouzel valley. Local opposition in Leighton Buzzard then forced it west, necessitating a tunnel through the Greensand Ridge. Leighton Station was built half a mile west of the town and led to the development of modern Linslade, a mile south of the old settlement.A station with two facing platforms and wooden buildings was opened about south of the Linslade tunnels. It lay between a bridge carrying the road to Soulbury over the railway and a level crossing with the road from Leighton to Southcott.
In May 1848, the station became a junction when a branch line to Dunstable was opened. In November 1857 a southbound goods train ran into a branch-line train waiting at the station. The Board of Trade insisted that a separate platform be constructed for branch-line trains. At the same time, the railway was under pressure from increasing traffic on the main lines. The London and North Western Railway decided to build a goods relief line from Bletchley to Primrose Hill.
The relief goods line and the extra platform for the branch line were not compatible with a level crossing adjacent to the station. The crossing was closed, the bridge over the railway for the road to Soulbury was widened and a new road was constructed on the western side of the railway to take diverted vehicular traffic. To the south, a footbridge was built over the railway lines to carry the footpath from Southcott to Leighton, which had been recorded on Robert Stephenson's .
A single-track eastern bore was added to the two-track Linslade tunnel and a new station with a brick main building was built eight chains to the south of the original station. Opening in February 1859, this had an imposing frontage on the east side featuring arched windows and the entrance. At the rear was the platform for the Dunstable branch line. A tunnel from the main building connected passengers to the platforms to the west for the passenger lines to and from London. Between the London passenger lines and the Dunstable branch line were two goods tracks.
Access to the Dunstable branch was controlled by Leighton No. 2 signal box situated to the north of the station, while the actual branch signals were controlled by the main line box to the south.
Between 1872 and 1874 a single-track western bore was added to the two bores of the Linslade tunnels as part of the addition of a second, northbound goods line. The station was reconfigured with a pair of tracks added on the west side. There were now two pairs of tracks to and from London with platforms 8 chains long and a single platform 3 chains long for the Dunstable branch.
In 1874, land was purchased to the south of the station alongside the Dunstable branch for the construction of goods sidings, which eventually became known as 'Wing Yard'.
The LNWR was absorbed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the 1923 railway grouping and, in 1927, it added a crossover between the fast and slow lines. This was to play a significant role in the derailment of Royal Scot No. 6114 "Coldstream Guardsman" at Linslade on 22 March 1931 when the driver took the crossover at instead of the regulation. There had been a diversion in place on the fast lines and the driver had missed the warning signals. The engine overturned and six people were killed, including the driver and fireman. The Scotland amateur football team was on the train, but remained unscathed.
In 1957–1958 the platform buildings were rebuilt and a concrete awning placed over the platform. At the entrance a larger booking / waiting hall, central heating, electric lighting and the cycle storage, parcels and loading bay were improved.
The Great Train Robbery of 1963 occurred just south of this station, at near Ledburn, at a bridge on the southbound stretch towards Cheddington. Wing Yard was closed in February 1967 and it is now used as a car park, while the branch to Dunstable was closed from June.
In 1989, the platforms were lengthened to accommodate 12-coach trains and a £1.8m project to rebuild the station was started. With the closure of the line to Dunstable, the new station building occupies the space where the old platforms and lines to Dunstable lay. The tunnel connecting the booking office to the platforms was replaced by a bridge to the south of the new station building, which was opened in1992. A new footbridge with lifts, funded by the Department for Transport ‘Access for All’ programme, was constructed in 2014 to the north of the station building.
When the footbridge to the south of the station building was constructed c.1990, it had additional flights of steps which made it accessible from outside the platform area. There followed a first attempt to close the public footpath across the railway which had been recorded on Robert Stephenson's 1833 plan and for which the London and North Western Railway had built a bridge when rebuilding the station in 1859. This was rejected by South Bedfordshire District Council and the Planning Inspector at a subsequent appeal.
In 2019, Network Rail declared that the bridge for the public footpath was unsafe and demolished it; the public right of way was temporarily diverted over the southern station footbridge. In July 2024, Network Rail proposed to divert the public footpath over the northern station footbridge. Central Bedfordshire Council rejected this and initiated legal action against Network Rail for obstruction of the footpath.
Motive power depot
The London and North Western Railway opened a small motive power depot at the south end of the station in 1859. This was reroofed in 1957 but closed 5 November 1962 and was demolished.Services
Current services
All services at Leighton Buzzard are operated by London Northwestern Railway.The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
- 4 tph to London Euston
- 2 tph to
- 2 tph to via