Flitwick railway station is in the centre of

Flitwick Flitwick () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "a hamlet on the River Flitt". The spelling ''Flytwyk'' appears in 1381. The nearby River Flit runs through Flitwick Moor, a natur ...

, in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The station is situated on the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...

. The station is managed by

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

, 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 Ampthill () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population estimate of 8,100 (Mid year estimate 2017 from the ONS). It is administered bAmpthill Town Council The ward of Ampthill which also i ...

, which no longer has its own station. From Flitwick, trains travel north and serve

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

and southbound trains serve

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

Luton Airport Parkway Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is down the line from London St Pancras between to the south and to ...

, Harpenden, St Albans,

London St Pancras St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

and Brighton.

History

It was built by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

in 1870 on its extension to St. Pancras. The original station buildings were restored in the early 1980s. 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.

Stationmasters

*William Hodgkinson 1870 - 1873 *G. Bowles 1873 - 1875 *George Croft 1875 - 1884 *Thomas Edward Bowers 1884 - 1886 *Simeon Marshall 1886 - 1891 *Sheron Morton 1891 - 1894 *G.J. Best 1894 - 1898 *Frederick Brookes 1898 - 1902 (formerly station master at Southill) *William George Hall 1902 - 1926 (formerly station master at Henlow Camp) *F.J. Newell until 1929 (afterwards station master at Poplar) *Harry Ariss from 1929 (formerly station master of Claydon)

Services

All services at Flitwick are operated by

using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 4 tph to * 2 tph to * 2 tph to Three Bridges via During the peak hours, the station is served by additional services to and from , , and . A number of peak hour services run non-stop between Flitwick and . The station is also served by a half-hourly night service between Bedford and on Sunday to Friday nights.

Facilities

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

PlusBus Plusbus is an add-on ticket, which can be purchased with National Rail train tickets in the United Kingdom. It allows unlimited travel on participating bus and tram operators' services in the whole urban area of rail-served towns and cities. ...

scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving. It is in the same area as Harlington station. There is now only one entrance to the station: through the ticket office from Steppingley Road. The previous second entrance, situated directly onto the footbridge from Dunstable Road, which in 2016 had gates installed, is now permanently closed.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, CityFlyer=y, Ashford=y, SE None=y, SN None=y Flitwick Ampthill Railway stations in Bedfordshire DfT Category D stations Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1870 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway