Bletchley Flyover Reconstruction

Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 22 Apr 2021

Looking towards London from the south end of the station, anybody familiar with the location over the last 60 years will instantly see that something is missing. The rail flyover that was built in the early 1960s has had the spans crossing the West Coast Main Line removed pending the construction of a new bridge to accommodate East West Rail, that, under current proposals, will eventually link Oxford and Cambridge. The original purpose of the flyover was primarily to provide a route for freight trains that would avoid London; a major marshalling yard was to be built at Swanbourne, a short distance to the west, to deal with the traffic. In fact policy changed in the 1960s with a greatly reduced emphasis on unprofitable wagonload operations, in which each wagon was dealt with as a separate consignment requiring much sorting and re-sorting en route, and the yard was never built. This meant that the flyover was little used and came to be regarded as a white elephant; the line over it was eventually mothballed in 1993. Nevertheless, the future is exciting and work is evidently progressing well.

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