Exploring abandoned railways - Bedford St Johns station

[@psychokeef]

Happy new year to you and your family and it’s great to see you back on the channel with a fantastic video 👏👏👏👍

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

A really interesting vid, thank you..... The station you're exploring didn't close until 1984..... that's when British Rail diverted the Bletchley trains into Bedford Midland to connect with services on the St Pancras main line. You are right about it being called the Varsity Line, it connected Oxford to Cambridge via Bletchley. The Oxford-Bletchley section closed to passengers in 1967 (although the line remained open for freight trains) and St Johns to Cambridge on 1st Jan 1968 and was then lifted. It's amazing to think St Johns hung on for so long, being sited away from the town centre.....

[@Wombled]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus thank you for the information :)

[@Daytona2]

Happy new year to you all, hope you had a pleasant Christmas 😊 This makes me feel old - I saw or caught a train there when I was a child in the 70s or 80s. Perhaps it was a special. In terms of your wondering why these businesses don't last long - it's a capitalist entrepreneur thing, rather than a society thing. Entrepreneurs are egotistical spivs, in it for short term profit. They all wanted to own their own massive railway network and over expanded way beyond what was required - some medium sized towns had 3 stations. It was unsustainable and they went bust or were taken over and the excess, uneconomic, stations closed. The track mileage peaked around 1906 and declined from there. The depressions in the early 20s and 30s precipitated a wider crisis which resulted in the forced amalgamations into the big four - LNER, LMS, GWR & SR in 1923 and then, nationalisation into the state controlled BR in 1948.

[@Wombled]

Unfortunately capital entrepreneurialism IS society as we find it now.

[@NWP_EXPLORING]

Great video mate

[@Wombled]

Cheers dude 😊