Blue Bridge (Suicide Bridge) Milton Keynes 03/05/10 Report

[Tankman]

Known locally as Blue Bridge, and later as Suicide Bridge, for obvious reasons! when the area started to get populated by Milton Keynes folk! its highest claim was in 1986 when 12 people jumped in one year
Milton Keynes has one of the highest suicide rates in the UK
A sad fact!

The bridge was originally built by the London & North Western Railway, circa 1865 for farm traffic (Horse & Cart) that once dominated the area, before Milton Keynes was built.

It spans a relatively deep cutting which crosses the main West Coast main line and also a deeper line that serves the Wolverton Railway Works. The lower single track use to run through two deeper cuttings below the main West Coast tracks. Now only one is used occasionally to run coaching stock in and out of the works. It is the only access from the main line into the works, and the track crosses under the main line, from Up side to Down Side, or vice versa
Pretty unique in that respect!



Original Blue Bridge to the left, with the new Road bridge to the Right. The old bridge is now closed and has been for about 10 years now, it was declared unsafe, yet it still stands



The out of use lower cutting that once served the Wolverton Works.



The West Coast Main Line, with the "In Use" single track deeper cutting to the right



"Suicide Bridge" claimed its last victim in 1996, when someone jumped from the bridge into the path of a Glasgow to London train Since its closure the bridge has remained abandoned and silent, cept for the presence of the passing trains below