The Bedford–Northampton line was a branch of the Midland Railway which served stations in three counties: Northampton and Horton in Northamptonshire, Olney in Buckinghamshire and Turvey and Bedford in Bedfordshire, England.
[3] On 5 July 1865, an Act of Parliament was passed which authorised the Bedford and Northampton Railway with a capital of £400,000 divided into 20,000 shares of £20 each; further powers allowed borrowing up to £133,000.
[6] Two further Acts were necessary in 1866 and 1867 to extend the time needed for completion of the line due to delays in obtaining funding and appointing a suitable contractor.
[4][3] By 25 August 1870, Edwin Clark Punchard & Co. had been appointed to build the line and the directors of the Bedford and Northampton Railway were informed that works were proceeding rapidly.
[11] A meeting of the directors on 18 November 1870 indicated that completion would take place on 31 August 1871 but delays were caused by heavy rains which damaged the line's embankments and cuttings.
[16] The line opened on 10 June 1872[17][3][18][5] and was subsequently vested in the Midland Railway on 31 December 1885 under powers conferred by an Act of 16 July 1885.
[25] During its later years, the service generally comprised an Ivatt 2-6-2T with a two-coach LMS non-corridor suburban push-pull set, well-suited for working lightweight trains stopping frequently and requiring rapid acceleration.
[21] In August 1940 the LMS closed the down line between Olney and Turvey so that it could be used as a siding to store valuable war materials.
[35] Patronage was declining at the time of the decision to close St John's although the line did see specials when there was horseracing at Towcester Racecourse.
[20] During the Second World War, the line formed a useful cross-country link with well-filled passenger trains and freight routed via Bedford from Avonmouth.
[36][37][20] Faced with the need to make economies following the end of the war, diesel railbuses were introduced in 1958 accompanied with an increase in service frequency to nine between Bedford and Northampton.
[38][25][20] Great efforts were made by the British Transport Commission to encourage passenger traffic and it was even proposed to construct a new halt at Newton Blossomville.
[48] The Government Office for the East of England published a multi-modal study in 2003 recommending a new Bedford–Northampton line as part of an extension of Thameslink.
[49] The Bedfordshire Railway and Transport Association (BRTA), had called for the trackbed protection and advocated reopening since the Association's Inauguration in March 1997;[citation needed] as a part of its campaigning, it called on the government to include the reopening of the line as part of the West Coast Main Line modernisation.
[55] In the light of local population growth, BRTA has suggested that a reopened line, including a station at Olney, would relieve the A428 road and promote tourism.
[56] In December 2014, a Network Rail study stated that the reopening of the line "would provide a considerably shorter, and already partially electrified, cross country route to the West Midlands.
[59] In October 2012, the Office of Rail Regulation gave its consent to the disposal of the remaining 1.8 mi (2.9 km) stretch of track between the A508 Cotton End (Bridge Street) in Northampton and Salthouse Road on the Brackmills Industrial Estate.
[60] The consent could allow the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation (WNDC) to purchase the trackbed as part of a larger proposed scheme which would see the adjoining Power Station site redeveloped as the new riverside campus of the University of Northampton.
[64] In April 2018, the plans to build the link road were approved by Northampton Borough Council; the project will be part-funded by SEMLEP.