Slimmed down



The original car park layout
(looking north)

 While the rest of us were enjoying Easter, London Midland staff were out remodelling the car park at Bletchley station.  I don't know how many spaces have been lost, but the removal of a large section of the top deck has probably reduced capacity by around 150-200.

The new car park layout (with
most of the decking shown in
the picture above removed
- looking south)

So why have these spaces been 'taken away'?  Is it a further sign of a degradation in service for Bletchley passengers?  Have LM reforecast demand following the cancellation of a couple of major housing projects in the area?  The answer to both questions is apparently 'no'.

It seems that when London Midland secured the franchise for the Euston-Northampton route they took on a commitment to provide an extra 1,000 parking spaces.  The result was the introduction of the rather clever, freestanding upper decks put in at several stations including Bletchley.  After hitting the demand-based targets for the stations involved, LM found themselves a couple of hundred slots short of the overall 1,000 figure.  There was room at Bletchley, so an extra section or two of deck went in there.

London Midland have now 'robbed Peter to pay Paul'.  Demand for car parking at Northampton has far exceeded supply while we have spare capacity at Bletchley.  The deck sections removed over the Easter weekend have therefore been transferred north.

Painted markings showing the
intended position at the front
of the car park for the up
ramp (adjacent to the
entrance to the lower floor)

Passengers at Bletchley can be thankful that London Midland changed their minds about the design for the new layout.  The evidence for what it would have looked like is still around - Look at the paint markings on the road at the front of the car park.  Their first plan was to relocate the ramps from the rear of the car park to the front!



Again, painted markings showing
the intended location of the
down ramp - over the entrance
and straight onto the roundabout!



Fortunately, following a short campaign on Twitter London Midland saw sense.   We already have chaos in the evenings with cars approaching the roundabout from umpteen different directions (including vehicles coming the wrong way out of the one-way car park entrance).  Cars coming down the ramp from the upper deck would have had to have priority which would have gone against the normal principles of access onto a roundabout.



As the saying goes, 'an accident waiting to happen...'



Multiple access points onto the station forecourt roundabout...