Local Facilities and Interchange
The station is the terminus for many bus services and almost all intra-city buses stop there. These services are operated mostly by Arriva as well as some routes by Stagecoach and a number of independent operators. The frontage of the station has six bus stops, four for local services and two for long-distance services. Stagecoach operate three major long-distance routes from here. Their 99 coach route runs to Luton Airport via Luton railway station, providing a direct link between the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line. Their X5 coach route between Oxford and Cambridge stops here and their X4 interurban bus route to Northampton and Peterborough terminates here. Arriva operate routes 100 and 150 to Aylesbury. For National Express coach services, see Milton Keynes Coachway.
The station building is home to a shop and there are other shops and restaurants on the south side of the station square. There are a number of hotels on Midsummer Boulevard (which begins opposite the station and leads up into Central Milton Keynes). Numerous bus services each hour traverse Midsummer Boulevard, connecting the station to Midsummer Place and Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. The Milton Keynes redway system, a comprehensive network of cycle/pedestrian paths, connects to the station and its cycle parking facilities.
The station square itself is a favourite site for skateboarding and freestyle BMX and as a result the granite facings of the planting surrounds have suffered from the continuous bumping and grinding. This has lessened somewhat since the opening of a dedicated skateboarding park (Sk8 MK) close to the central bus station. At the end of June 2011, the Borough Council announced that work would begin in August 2011 to restructure the lanes immediately in front of the station, giving turnback facilities to taxis (on the one hand) and minicabs and private cars (on the other), with two through routes for buses and coaches with associated shelters.
Read more about this topic: Milton Keynes Central Railway Station
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