Wolverton
General information
Location	Wolverton,City of Milton Keynes England
Grid reference	SP820415
Managed by	London Northwestern Railway
Platforms	4
Construction
Accessible	No (stairs to platforms, step up to trains)
Other information
Station code	WOL
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	1838
Key dates
September 1838[1]	First Wolverton station opened byL&BR
November 1840	Station relocated to new track alignment
1881[1]	Station rebuilt for a second time
June 2012[2]	New station building opened
Passengers
2019/20	0.452 million
2020/21	83,314
2021/22	0.210 million
2022/23	0.267 million
2023/24	0.299 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

Wolverton railway station servesWolverton, a constituent town ofMilton Keynes,Buckinghamshire, England. The station is on theWest Coast Main Line, about 52 miles (84 km) fromEuston, betweenMilton Keynes Central andNorthampton. The station is one of the seven stations serving theMilton Keynes urban area.^[a]

The station has four platforms, of which just two (3 and 4) are normally in use. The station serves the northern areas of Milton Keynes (including Wolverton itself, the nearby town ofStony Stratford and the village ofNew Bradwell) as well as the nearby villages inWest Northamptonshire.

There is a ticket office but it is only open on weekday mornings,^[3] subject to staff availability.

Although categorised as "step-free access category B3",^[3] this station is not realistically accessible for passengers with mobility impairments because all but one of the platforms are only reachable by long stairways.

The first station was built for the opening of theLondon and Birmingham Railway on 17 September 1838, on the embankment just north of the canal aboveWolverton Park.^[1] It proved to be temporary as the railway company purchased an additional 13.5 acres to the south, where they built a larger, more permanent station in 1840,^[4] at the east end of Church Street.^[5] The new station included refreshment rooms which employed a full-time staff of 22 in 1849.^[6] A hotel was planned but never built. The waiting room was lavishly redecorated for the visit ofQueen Victoria in 1844,^{[citation needed]} who spent that Christmas as the guest of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. In 1881, the main line was re-routed a little to the east (see 'Wolverton bend' below) to allow for expansion of theWolverton Works and a new station opened in August 1881.^[1][7] The ticket hall was a wooden building on a new bridge above the railway line and passengers needed to reach the platforms via flights of stairs. The wooden station stood here for over 100 years untilBritish Rail demolished it in about 1990.^[1] For many years after the wooden station building was demolished, Wolverton railway station was a temporary shed in the car park at track level.

A new replacement station building was built and opened on 21 June 2012.^[2] The new building is at track level and access to all but the adjacent platform is via stairs. It was designed by engineersSinclair Knight Merz and BPR Architects.^[8][9]

In mid September 2012, the Transport MinisterNorman Baker announced in a written answer that the Government had approvedLondon Midland's request to reduce the opening hours of the new ticket office, from the previous 06:00 – 12:00 to 06:15 – 11:00 henceforth.^[10]

In 2016, a coffee and snack kiosk opened in the new station booking hall.^{[citation needed]} As of late June 2022, the coffee and snack kiosk has gone and the booking hall appears to be closed.^{[citation needed]}

The 1833 Act of Parliament approving theLondon and Birmingham Railway included a clause that specified that a railway works be built around the mid-point, as it was considered scientifically unsafe at the time for railway locomotives to move more than 50 miles (80 km) without further inspection. After surveying all possible sites, Wolverton was chosen due to its co-location alongside the wharfing facilities of theGrand Union Canal, thereby also enabling the railway company to gain an easy agreement to build a viaduct over the canal company's land at this point.^[11] Provision of refreshment facilities for passengers availing of the stop was (at least initially) the primary purpose of the station, located as it was in (at the time) a very rural area.

With the advent of fast trains, Wolverton gained notoriety among railwaymen for its famously tight curve.^{[citation needed]} The curve was a result of the station and main line being moved eastward in 1881,^[1] to permit extension of theWolverton Works.^[12] The path of the original route remains in place through the Works site and includesRobert Stephenson's (Grade II* listed) bridge over theGrand Union Canal.^[13] TheAdvanced Passenger Train failed its trials here in the early 1990s but thePendolinotilting trains passed them in the early 2000s.^{[citation needed]}

To cross the valley of theRiver Great Ouse a little to the north, the company built a six-arch viaduct in 1838, at a cost then of £38,000.^[1][b] The viaduct was also designed byRobert Stephenson and is described byHistoric England in its Grade II listing as "the most impressive of the several viaducts on the line, being taller, more elaborately treated and with wider arches. It was one of the principal landmarks of the first trunk railway and one of the earliest viaducts on this scale".^[14]

From 1865 to 1964, there was a branch line from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell, primarily for employees of Wolverton Works. In 1964 the line was closed to passengers by theBeeching cuts and freight ceased in 1967. Between 1817 and 1864, the section fromGreat Linford toNewport Pagnell was an arm of theGrand Junction Canal which was then drained to become the track-bed. The route from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell is now aredway. Along the redway, the platforms atNew Bradwell andGreat Linford are still in place, as are a signal post at Newport Pagnell and an iron bridge taking the line (now the redway) over theGrand Union Canal.

In 1847, an accident just south of the (original) station caused the deaths of seven people.^[1]

The station has four platforms, of which just two are normally in use. Platforms 1 & 2 are the fast lines and these trains rarely stop here: they are used by London Northwestern only during works andAvanti West Coast in emergency. Platforms 3 & 4 are used frequently by London Northwestern: Avanti West Coast services pass these platforms (without stopping) only during works.

Access to platforms is via long flights of stairs to a pedestrian overbridge, making the station unusable for people with mobility impairment.

All services at Wolverton are operated byLondon Northwestern Railway.^[15]

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[16]

• 2 tph toLondon Euston
• 2 tph toBirmingham New Street

During the peak hours, the station is served by a number of additional services between London Euston andNorthampton.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Northampton towardsBirmingham New Street		London Northwestern Railway London–Birmingham		Milton Keynes Central towardsLondon Euston
Historical railways
Castlethorpe Line open, station closed		London and North Western Railway West Coast Main Line		Bletchley Line and station open
	Disused railways
Bradwell Line and station closed		London and North Western Railway Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line		Terminus

v t e Stations in and around Milton Keynes
Legend
West Coast Main Line towardsGlasgow Central Northampton loop toNorthampton Roade Cutting Roade Bedford–Northampton line towardsNorthampton Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway Salcey Forest Hanslope Junction Castlethorpe Olney Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway towardsBedford Deanshanger Old Stratford Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line Stony Stratford Newport Pagnell Wolverton Works Great Linford Wolverton Bradwell East West Rail / Marston Vale line toBedford Woburn Sands Milton Keynes Central Bow Brickhill Denbigh Hall Fenny Stratford Bletchley TMD Bletchley East West Rail / (formerVarsity Line) to Oxford Bletchley Flyover Leighton Buzzard West Coast Main Line towardsEuston

The station is at the eastern end of Wolverton, near the junction of Stratford Rd with Grafton Street. The nearest post-code is MK12 5FR.^[17] In thechainage notation traditionally used on the railway, its location on the line is 52 miles 33 chains (52.41 mi; 84.35 km) from Euston.^[18]

• Wolverton railway works
• Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway
• Denbigh Hall railway station: Pending construction of a viaduct over theRiver Ouse, passengers alighted at Denbigh Hall and transferred to horse-drawn coaches to Rugby station via theWatling Street turnpike.

v t e Northampton loop
Legend
Birmingham Loop Line Trent Valley line Trent Valley Junction Rugby Hillmorton Junction Rugby Parkway (proposed) Kilsby and Crick Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) Daventry South Junction Crick Tunnel Watford Lodge Tunnel Long Buckby Althorp Park Church Brampton Northampton– Market Harborough line Northampton Northampton–Peterborough line &Bedford–Northampton line Blisworth Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Hunsbury Hill Tunnel Roade Cutting Roade Hanslope Junction Castlethorpe Wolverton Milton Keynes Central West Coast Main Line

Wikimedia Commons has media related toWolverton railway station.

• Train times andstation information for Wolverton railway station fromNational Rail
• Pendolino rounds Wolverton bend (before coming to a stop at Milton Keynes Central)

52°03′55″N0°48′13″W / 52.0653°N 0.80357°W /52.0653; -0.80357

• Railway stations in Buckinghamshire
• DfT Category E stations
• Former London and Birmingham Railway stations
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1881
• Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains
• 1881 establishments in England
• Wolverton
• Railway stations in Milton Keynes
• Buildings and structures in Milton Keynes
• Stations on the West Coast Main Line
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838

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