History
Luton and Leagrave stations were built by the Midland Railway in 1868 on its extension south from Bedford to St Pancras. The old Leagrave Midland station buildings still exist, having been restored in the 1980s. For some years Luton station was called Luton Midland Road to distinguish it from the earlier Luton Bute Street, built by the Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction Railway Company in 1858, later part of the GNR. Bute Street was closed in 1965.
Construction of the first section of the M1 in 1959 meant that Luton being one of the first towns in the United Kingdom to be linked to the new motorway network.
The A5 road, which passes through nearby Dunstable, is on the route of the Watling Street, an ancient route of England.
Luton Airport was opened for passenger services at the end of World War II. Passenger numbers more than doubled from 1992 to 1998 when the growth of new low-cost flights rejuvenated the airport, and it was expanded in 1999 with a new terminal building and Luton Airport Parkway railway station was also opened.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Luton
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“In front of these sinister facts, the first lesson of history is the good of evil. Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)