| Ridgmont | |
| Symbol Location: | gb |
| Symbol: | rail |
| Borough: | Ridgmont, Central Bedfordshire |
| Country: | England |
| Coordinates: | 52.026°N -0.595°W |
| Grid Name: | Grid reference |
| Manager: | London Northwestern Railway |
| Platforms: | 2 |
| Code: | RID |
| Classification: | DfT category F2 |
| Footnotes: | Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 12 |
Ridgmont railway station is a small unstaffed railway station that serves the village of Ridgmont in Bedfordshire. The station is about 2km (01miles) away from Ridgmont on the other side of the M1 Motorway, (beside Junction 13), Brogborough and Husborne Crawley. It also serves the large Amazon warehouse next door.
It is on the Bletchley — Bedford Marston Vale line.
Although not geographically the midpoint of the line, many train services 'cross' at Ridgmont station. There is no Sunday passenger service timetabled although the line remains open with signalers on duty at the Marston Vale Signalling Centre at Ridgmont.
It is planned that the Marston Vale line will be upgraded as part of the East West Rail programme, to permit 100mph running. The Oxford-Bedford services are planned to stop here.[1]
The former station house, built in 1846 in the Cottage Orné architectural style, underwent a total refurbishment in 2014 managed by the Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity (BRCC) with funding from the Railway Heritage Trust. A tea room, gift shop, disabled access and toilets, additional car parking, two small 'start-up' offices and a meeting room have been provided. The former Victorian booking office has been restored as a small heritage centre.[2]
Scenes from the feature film 'One Day' were filmed at the station.
Ridgmont is in sight of Junction 13 of the M1 motorway and the station is adjacent to a number of distribution centres.
It was at Ridgmont that a new Marston Vale signalling control centre was built as part of the Bedford — Bletchley route modernisation in 2004. This centre replaced all the signal boxes and block posts (some contained within station buildings including Ridgmont) on the route.
All services at Ridgmont are operated by London Northwestern Railway.
The typical off-peak service is one train per hour in each direction between and which runs on weekdays and Saturdays only using DMUs. There is no Sunday service.[3] [4] [5] [6]
Ridgmont station, in common with others on the Marston Vale Line, is covered by the Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership,[7] which aims to increase use of the line by involving local people.