Flitwick railway station

Flitwick
View across Flitwick station towards the main building on the Down side, 13 January 2007
Location
Place	Flitwick
Local authority	District of Central Bedfordshire
Coordinates	52°00′14″N 0°29′42″W / 52.004°N 0.495°W / 52.004; -0.495Coordinates: 52°00′14″N 0°29′42″W / 52.004°N 0.495°W / 52.004; -0.495
Grid reference	TL034350
Operations
Station code	FLT
Managed by	Thameslink
Number of platforms	4
DfT category	D
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	1.204 million
2011/12	1.245 million
2012/13	1.319 million
2013/14	1.347 million
2014/15	1.451 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.
UK Railways portal

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.

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:

• 4 trains per hour to Bedford;
• 4 trains per hour to Brighton via Luton, Luton Airport Parkway, Harpenden, St Albans, London and Gatwick Airport.
• East Midlands Trains InterCity services from Leeds, Sheffield and Leicester run through at high speed, but do not stop. Interchange with InterCity services can be made at Luton and Bedford.

Currently, services at Flitwick are operated using Class 319, Class 387, Class 377 and 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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flitwick railway station.

• Train times and station information for Flitwick railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Bedford		Thameslink Thameslink		Harlington
		Thameslink Bedford-Sevenoaks (peak trains)
		Thameslink Thameslink fasts (peak trains)		Luton
Historical railways
Ampthill Line open, station closed		Midland Railway Midland Main Line		Harlington Line and station open