Line (which follow the original route of the London and Birmingham Railway). Connections to Manchester and other long-distance destinations can be made by changing at Milton Keynes Central. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Avanti West Coast services only stop at Northampton to drop passengers off, and most services run through fast, either via the Northampton Loop, or a lot more commonly via the fast West Coast Main Line History At one time there were three railway stations in Northampton: Northampton (Bridge Street), Northampton (St. John's Street) and Northampton (Castle), only the last of which now survives as the town's only station. The railway reaches Northampton Although the promoters of the London and Birmingham Railway had considered routes passing close to Northampton in 1830, the town was skirted by the final choice of alignment via and a loop line to remedy this had to wait for several decades. The decision to omit Northampton was not due to local opposition but rather engineering decisions taken by the railway company's engineer Robert Stephenson. The difference in gradient in the between Northampton and Blisworth, on the floor of the Nene Valley, is likely to have played a key role in the decision. Robert Stephenson is reported to have said that he could easily get trains into the town but not out again. As a result, Northampton lost out as a commercial centre to towns such as Leicester which had better transport links. The town was considered as the southern terminus of the Midland Counties Railway in 1833 but lost out to on account of the shorter distance with Leicester. Bridge Street station on the Northampton and Peterborough Railway from to was thus the first station in Northampton, opening on 13 May 1845. 1858 station Following the discovery of a large quantity of ironstone in Northamptonshire in 1851, a proposal was made by the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) for an line from Market Harborough to Northampton which received Parliamentary approval in 1853. The line's terminus in Northampton was to be on part of the old orchard of Northampton Castle which had been purchased in 1852 by the Reverend Havilland de Sausmarez, the absentee Rector of the Parish of St Peter, as the site of a new rectory. The L&NWR agreed to purchase the land for £5,250, to complete the parsonage and to rent it back to the Reverend. Tenders