Riding the Marston Vale line on a replacement bus

Tuesday 31st January 2023

Message to email subscribers: I am very sorry some subscribers didn’t receive Saturday’s blog and quite likely today’s too. I have raised this issue with WordPress and asked them to urgently look into it. One of their “Happiness Engineers” (yes, really) has been in touch to advise ‘there is an ongoing problem …. our developers are aware … and are working towards a solution’. I hope normal service will resume as soon as possible, but in the meantime posts can be found here.”

You’ve got to feel sorry for passengers using the Marston Vale railway line which runs between Bedford and Bletchley.

On the horizon are exciting plans to transform the line as part of the East West Rail project with some stations possibly getting four times the current hourly service as well as investment in new track and signalling yet for months and even years the line has been beset with unreliability and complete abandonment by trains.

Passengers got their hourly train service back on 16th May last year after a long Covid inspired period when London NorthWestern operated the entire timetable with replacement buses and things were finally looking up during the summer and autumn only for Vivarail to go into administration in December meaning maintenance arrangements for the class 230 trains used on the line ceased overnight.

London NorthWestern immediately announced a suspension of the service with no alternative maintenance arrangements available and future use of the former London Underground D stock converted trains in doubt.

So it’s been back to buses again to achieve some semblance of a service on the line for passengers using the 10 intermediate stations as well as Bedford and Bletchley.

Some of the stations are not easily accessed by large vehicles so London NorthWestern have arranged two simultaneous departures on the approximate hourly replacement service, one deploying a minibus calling at all stations and the other operated with full size coaches skipping four of the smallest and hardest to reach stations thereby giving a quicker end to end journey time.

The train took 42 minutes for a Bedford to Bletchley journey whereas the limited stop coach does it in 67 minutes and the all stations stopper takes 85 minutes – double the train.

Daytime departures from Bletchley between 11:00 and 17:00 are at the same minutes past each hour (01) but from Bedford the times are more variable between 48 and 05 on different hours although are all 55 past the hour between 11:55 and 15:55.

It takes eight vehicles to run the service – two on each departure so this operation must be proving quite costly for what is a small branch line.

The coaches and minibuses out in service when I took a journey up and down the line last Thursday were provided predominantly by Luton based AtoB Group which includes Tates Coaches and minibuses using the A to B brand. One coach was also provided by another Luton based company: 7 Plus Travel Ltd.

I planned to travel on the 11:05 all stations departure from Bedford and having arrived at about 10:55 found a minibus sitting outside the station in the bus stand where rail replacement buses stop.

There didn’t seem to be a second vehicle so at 11:04 as the driver (who’d been taking her break in the driving seat) turned the engine on, the 10 passengers who’d been waiting with me in the sheltered area wandered over, opened the door and climbed aboard.

The driver confirmed she was the all stations departure and she didn’t know where the limited stop vehicle was but just on 11:05 as we were about to leave a coach appeared and all 10 passengers got off the minibus and transferred over to it.

This left just me on the minibus and we set off for the tour of all 10 stations across the Bedfordshire countryside. It wasn’t a luxury style minibus and didn’t offer much legroom….

… and it didn’t offer ‘level boarding’ although a wheelchair could be accommodated using a tail lift at the rear if needed.

First stop was at nearby Bedford St Johns where three passengers were waiting but caught the coach which was approaching behind us.

Whereas the coach skips the next station, Kempston Hardwick, we made our way to reach it but got caught in a long slow moving queue of traffic leaving Bedford due to a lorry blocking our progress as it delivered building supplies.

This delay cost us five minutes and we reached Kempston Hardwick at 11:29 instead of 11:24 with a passenger bound for Bletchley patiently waiting for us.

Next station is Stewartby where another passenger was waiting. At this time it would seem the limited stop coach was still behind us otherwise he’d have been better taking that for his journey to Woburn Sands. The other passenger waiting was for Bedford.

Millbrook was our next station, another by-passed by the limited stop coach as we needed to take a more circuitous route to reach it including passing the famous test track now owned and run by UTAC.

By now we were only three minutes down having made up two minutes of our delay.

Almost all the stations on this line are two platform affairs by a level crossing and with rail replacement buses picking up alongside the entrance to the station.

The next two stations – Lidlington and Ridgmont – are also served by the coach.

Oddly as we arrived at Lidlington we met the coach heading the other way (because it takes another route which is supposedly quicker) and it seemed strange it hadn’t made better progress.

We passed Ridgmount next, as the coach did, where there’s a small and fascinating Heritage Centre about the Marston Vale line that’s well worth a visit…

…in the former station building ticket office…

… and where there’s also a lovely tea room too.

The following station – Apsley Guise – was just one for us to call at but we didn’t pick anyone up anyway.

The roads around Aplsey Guise are quite narrow which suited the minibus but could have caused problems for a coach so it’s just as well the route is split in the way it is.

Next up is Woburn Sands where our Stewartby border alighted and by now we were now only a minute down on our scheduled timings.

Passing the station it was clear Network Rail staff were busy at work taking advantage of the platforms being out of use by giving them some attention.

As we approached the next station, Bow Brickhill, yet again the so called limited stop coach was there which once again seemed an odd thing when it was supposed to be 17 minutes ahead of us by this point.

Still no more passengers for us, and as we continued via the last station, Fenny Stratford, which the coach would by-pass,,,,

,,, we were three minutes down again but it didn’t matter as no-one was waiting. It was then a straight run from there to Bletchley including under this rather restricted road width bridge carrying the railway …

… and we arrived into Bletchley at 12:30.

Where the limited stop coach had already parked up….

…. and another minibus was laying over.

Inside the ticket office at Bletchley there was a notice board and leaflet holder organised by the Community Rail Partnership which helpfully had some folded A4 typed timetables showing the rail replacement service…

… and a wipe board confirmed despite the drivers obviously not being in ASLEF, the service wouldn’t be running tomorrow and Friday during the strike.

After a lunch beak I decided to return to Bedford on the limited stop coach rather than the minibus to try and find out why it seemed to be running behind schedule. Just before departure at 13:01 the coach pulled up at the bus stop for replacement buses and seven passengers boarded.

As we were pulling out the minibus which was running the all stations journey pulled up as well, but no one was around to board.

A Tates coach also pulled in on the 11:55 limited stop journey from Bedford due to arrive into Bletchley at 12:57, so was only four minutes late.

It was straight to Bow Brickhall for us (missing out Fenny Stratford) where we dropped off one passenger and picked another up for Ridgmount. Our next station was Woburn Sands where two alighted and we were due at Ridgmont, our next station, at 13:17.

But, oh dear, the driver took a wrong turning at the rather complicated M1 junction 13 and instead of continuing south on the A421 beyond the first roundabout with the improved and widened A421 continuing north to Bedford, he turned left there and followed that road thereby missing the turning at the next roundabout for the A507.

The passenger for Ridgmont realised what had happened and got up to ask the driver if he was going to Ridgmont which he confirmed he was explaining he’d taken a wrong turning.

Unfortunately it meant a seven and a half mile detour up and down the A421 dual carriageway until the first exit where we could turn making us 21 minutes late. We managed to make some of that delay up on the rest of the journey, having picked five passengers up at Stewartby and arrived at Bedford 13 minutes late at 12:18 instead of 12:05.

It made me wonder if the driver had taken a wrong turn on the outward journey too, which would explain why he was so late when we kept catching him up. I suspect so.

At least the coach was nice and comfortable with plenty of legroom and seat back trays….

…. and had usb sockets too.

And there was space for a wheelchair.

No-one is saying how long the poor passengers who use the Marston Vale line are going to have to be using coaches and minibuses instead of trains.

The Class 230s look like they’ve become an expensive liability which won’t see any further use. With all the new trains going into service I would have thought there should be some suitable trains available to cascade down to this line. I know GWR having cancelled their Class 739s and retiring the Castle HST sets so are in no position to help but I hear some Class 158s might be found from elsewhere, or maybe TfW with all its new trains will have something?

Let’s hope a solution is found very soon, because this is no way to be running a railway.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: TThS