Brackley's Baffling Bus Business (1)

Brackley is in Northamptonshire (just!) ...

... and lies very roughly half way between its County Town and Oxford. Once on the A43, the town is now by-passed taking the heavy traffic between the M1, M40 and the lower reaches of the A43 away from its historic and attractive town centre.

Brackley then

Brackley now

Brackley was, for many years, a convenient convenience stop for the fbbs as they drove from Sheffield and/or Northampton to the Isle of Wight. These facilities used to be down a narrow spooky lane, very uninviting in hours of darkness. Their replacements are adjacent to the main bus stops.

Once upon a time Brackley had two railway stations. Brackley Central, furthest from the town centre but named after the Great Central Railway rather than geographically, was to the north.

The station building was on the A43 ...

... and is now, cruelly, a supplier of tyres for motor vehicles.

The much changed rear view ...

... still shows the little gable (upper right) which led to the footbridge.

The station closed in September 1966.

This former "Great" main line is almost invisible from ground level, but from above it forms a tree-lined gash across the fields. At one point the bridge over Brackley's other line still stands.

The L N W R station (just called "Brackley") was just to the south of the town centre near the site of the Castle.

Its single track line ran from Banbury via Brackey and Buckingham, then made its lonely way to Bletchley via Verney Junction where it touches coupling rods with the furthest outpost of London's Metropolitan Railway From the road (track?) called Goose Green you can see the overgrown remnants of the cutting ...

... which took the line under the A43 to the station.

All is obliterated now but the line of the former trackbed can just be spotted as it crosses the new A43.

The line closed to passenger trains in January 1961.

But our specific interest is in the buses and Wikipedia gives a good (?) summary of recent events.

The town has numerous bus services and is connected to major towns and cities including Banbury (499, 500), Bicester, Buckingham, Towcester, Oxford and Northampton.

Replace "is" with "was"! Of these "links" only the 500 remains as a proper all-day service. Wikipedia continues with a lengthy piece giving a partial taster of the bus service along the A43 from Northampton via Brackley to Oxford..

In 2003 the X38 Oxford-Northampton express service became the X6 ...

... with the introduction of the 88 to serve villages en route to Northampton. In September 2007, Stagecoach Midlands' Oxford-Brackley-Towcester-Northampton services were reduced with the merging of the 88 and X6 as route X88.

By 2010 (?) the 88 was cut back to Silverstone with a limited tendered service offering onward travel to Brackley and Oxford on a very poor-frequency connecting service.

In September 2011 the 88 service covering the Northampton to Oxford route, was replaced by the 8. The route of which starts at Northampton and now terminated at Bicester. After 2016, the 8 was renumbered once again to 88 with timetable changes. A few months later, the 88 was further reduced only running between Northampton and Silverstone, with one off-peak journey numbered X88 and terminating at Brackley Tesco.

This is not quite the whole story; but fbb will attempt a clarification tomorrow aiming to show how poor Brackley has repeatedly been beset by the Curse of the Frayed End.

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Snippet

On the Bristol to London route the new class 800 rains supreme!

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 Next Brackley blog : Wednesday 18th October