When this did not work out, the Great Northern giving preference to their trains at the Hitchin junction, the Midland decided to build a new line south from Bedford to their new St Pancras station in London.
Following nationalisation in 1948, British Railways demolished the station building and replaced it with a pre-fabricated concrete structure at road level.
The station's goods yard was located on the opposite site of the High Street, and despite its small size, it still managed to handle a substantial amount of agricultural traffic.
Traffic picked up again during the Second World War when troop specials were run to enable conscripts to return home from the RAF camps at Cardington and Henlow.
[12] After the line had closed, a proposal was made to re-use the trackbed as part of a bypass for the town, but this idea was not pursued.