Milton Keynes outing (11/11/24)

A last minute, unexpected, outing has seen me taking a trip towards Milton Keynes. I was there for other reasons, but I thought I should blog about it.

The day started out with me getting the 09:33am Elizabeth Line service (from Goodmayes) towards Farringdon. This took 25 minutes. I then had to tap out of the Elizabeth Line station and head towards the Underground station, a Circle line service towards Hammersmith rushed in, as I went quickly down the stairs - made it, thankfully. Two stops to Euston Square and walking to Euston station after alighting (a 5 minute walk), meant the journey only took 45 minutes which is pretty good.

London Euston Platform 11, with my train on the platform.

Ahh, London Euston. It takes me back those journeys I took in 2018 and 2019 to Coventry and Birmingham New Street. I have blogged about the latter trip if you are interested. My train operator today was London Northwestern Railway, and I would be boarding the 10:23 service which was heading to Birmingham New Street. On one of their Class 350s. Now LNWR have two services to get to Milton Keynes, you can use the faster service which has less stops, or the slower service that calls at more stops. 

Faster service to Milton Keynes; Calls at: Watford Junction, Leighton Buzzard, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central. The train continues to Birmingham New Street. (Journey time = 44 minutes).

Slower service to Milton Keynes; Calls at: Harrow and Wealdstone, Bushey, Watford Junction, Kings Langley, Apsley, Hemel Hampstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Cheddington, Leighton Buzzard, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central. (Journey time = 1hr and 7 minutes).

Class 350/1 interior, refurbished.

Of course, I went with the faster service and I boarded the Class 350, which was refurbished a couple of years ago. There are four variants of the Class 350, and I was onboard the first variant (350/1) which had a two by two seating layout featuring updated seat covers, USB chargers (along with a plug socket - always good to have two options) digital screens and wi-fi of course. This should make the trains last longer and ensure they are up to date with the current trains. Unsurprisingly, the train was full leaving London Euston, but it was a lovely 45 minute journey. We whizzed through West London, the view consisting of high-rise apartments/buildings. By the time we approached Watford Junction the scenery changed completely, green countryside and at least the weather held out. The train arrived on-time at Milton Keynes Central at 11:07, pleased to say. Also, a shout-out to the guard onboard this service a really friendly and nice guy. 

Photos above: Onboard digital screens, USB port and 3 socket pin which was part of the Class 350 refurbishment.

Departure board at Milton Keynes of the train I boarded, heading towards Birmingham New Street.

The train I boarded at London Euston, departing Milton Keynes Central continuing onwards to Birmingham New Street. 

Milton Keynes is a fairly new town in the UK, being formed on 23rd of January 1967. Originally it was a village and farmland but the area become part of the Government's plans, to relocate populations of people from London, including other cities that suffered bomb damage during World War Two. The population was planned to be 250,000, it has exceeded that and today sees over 280,000 people. In terms of design, the planners decided to make it as a grid design layout, this design is common in New York City in America. Plenty of roundabouts too, if you are a fan of them. It recently gained city status during the Queens Jubilee in 2022, so it's now a city, I guess. 

Additionally, I don't think I have ever seen so many car parks outside buildings close by - my gosh! A car park playground! Car is king around here, you can tell the planners didn't really make it pedestrian friendly. If you want to get the shopping centre from the station by walking, well, a 20 minute walk, yeah, I am not joking. You can blame the planners for that one.

Grid layout of Milton Keynes, seen on Google Maps.

If you want to kill some time while in Milton Keynes, check out Unity Place. It is the home of Santander Bank headquarters, but looks like a university campus with the amount of floors, size of the cafes (which have really nice chairs), food markets, as well as work and leisure. You would not think for such a large space like this it would be used for those purposes. 

I needed something to eat and there was a Wetherspoons nearby so I popped inside. Saved me walking 20 minutes to the shopping centre. Due to my train coming quite soon, I couldn't order a proper meal which meant I had to settle for a drink instead. Unfortunate but, I could manage - don't worry.

Coke Zero, in a glass.

The Wetherspoons Menu (the breakfast side anyway) at the Milton Keynes restaurant. 

Wetherspoons Milton Keynes restaurant.

Milton Keynes Bus Station. Uno to the left and Arriva to the right.

The bus station is pretty basic, featuring operators like Arriva, Stagecoach and Uno.  As for the frequency, well, it's pretty much normal, waiting 20 minutes or even more, but then again one would be grateful for a bus service operating at all to their areas. So anyways, my train came at 13:35 for the journey back down to London and well it was busy, supposedly it was coming down from Birmingham (and it was having checked this through Realtime Trains). We only called at Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard before arriving into London - a quick 40 minutes. Onboard a Class 350 again. I then took the Circle and Elizabeth Lines and made it before school kick out time, most importantly though I avoided rush hour, otherwise it would have been a nightmare!

Milton Keynes Central station entrance and exit.

Waiting for the London Euston at Milton Keynes Central.

Class 350 train, approaches the platform on the 1:35pm London Euston service, having come down from Birmingham. 

While I didn't explore the whole of Milton Keynes, visiting it was still an experience. Luckily, everything panned out well and there was no issues along the way, it could have all gone downhill. It's not ridiculously far from London, although it's not near either. Here are some other photos I captured to finish;

Milton Keynes Central station sign.

Arriva Beds and Bucks Bus Route M5 seen in Milton Keynes on a service to Magma Park.
Bus type seen: Wright Eclipse 2 (single decker)

Red Rose bus seen on stand at Milton Keynes.

Thanks for reading and happy riding!