Bedford
Bedford - Cambridge Line
THE L. and N.W. Railway opened
On the 11th July the Bedford and Cambridge Railway was opened. "The peaceful thoroughfares of St. John and 8t. Mary, filled with
well-dressed crowds, woke up from their long trance of quiet, and the old
inhabitants, rubbing their eyes at the unwonted spectacle, welcomed back
the good old times." At nine o'clock a.m. the first passenger train,
composed of 25 carriages, containing several hundred passengers, quitted
the Bedford station, and was joined at the intermediate stations by
numerous others who accepted the invitation of the directors to visit
Cambridge. In a long and racy description of the line, occurs the
following passage :-"Bedfordshire may claim this railway as a public
work mainly of its own creation, for its most active promoters have been
the landowners and men of business of the county," and the name of
Mr. W. H. Whitbread was honourably mentioned in this connexion. The
time-tables published this year described the above railway as the London
and North Western line. Five trains a day ran each way. The other line
then existing was the present Midland section between Leicester and
Bedford, connecting these
towns with London, via Hitchin.
Extract from: J. Hamson, Bedford Town and Townsmen 1845-1895 Bedfordshire Times, 1896
Page last updated: 23rd April 2008
