A £220 million project to provide Milton Keynes Central station with new platforms is taking shape. When completed it will improve the flow of fast trains and provide for potentially new services.

The huge construction job, being carried out as part of Network Rail’s West Coast modernisation programme, is due to be completed at the end of the year.

The work will benefit both of the major operators which use the station – Virgin West Coast and London Midland.

On the northbound side of the station – which was opened in 1982 to serve the new city at a cost of £3 million – Virgin Trains will be able to use what amounts to an island platform.

A new track will be laid on the west side of the station near to the A5 bypass of the city, along with a new platform.

A massive earth-moving job has been carried out on what was waste land to carve out the formation for the new line. This will provide routeing for non-stop trains heading north and avoid delays caused by stopping trains.

Two existing footbridges are being either extended or demolished and a new one rebuilt.

On the other, east, side of the station what was originally a turn-back siding will be converted into a through line and there are also plans to provide a new platform for potential new services to Aylesbury and Oxford – via a reopened Oxford to Cambridge line – and also to Bedford.

A another major facet of the current work will be provision by Network Rail of a new junction north of Bletchley station to provide operators with more flexibility in switching trains from and to fast and slow lines.

There is also an associated resignalling scheme in the Bletchley area.

Work at Milton Keynes is being carried out by Jarvis, and Carillion is now principal contractor with Buckingham contracted for footbridge work.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “This project is all about providing more capacity for trains and also about providing a new platform on the east side of the station for potential services on the proposed Ox-ford to Cambridge link.”

A Virgin West Coast spokes-man said: “This project will provide us with greater flexibility in stopping trains at Milton Keynes, which is primarily a commuter station.

“The new tracks will benefit us in avoiding conflict with other trains. The project will certainly benefit London Mid-land services.”

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