The first station was built for the opening of the London and Birmingham Railway on 17 September 1838, on the embankment just north of the canal above Wolverton Park. It proved to be temporary as the railway company purchased an additional 13.5 acres to the south and chose to build a larger, permanent station there in 1840. The new station included refreshment rooms which employed a full-time staff of 29. A hotel was planned but never built. The waiting room was lavishly redecorated for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1844, who spent that Christmas as the guest of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. In 1881 the main line was re-routed a little to the east to allow for expansion of the Wolverton Works and a new station built. The booking hall was a wooden building at street level above the railway line and passengers could reach the platforms via flights of stairs. The wooden station stood here for over 100 years until British Rail demolished it in 1991. For many years after the wooden station building was demolished, Wolverton railway station was a temporary shed in the car park at track level. A new brick building to replace it was finally opened on 21 June 2012. The new building is also at track level. In mid September 2012, the Transport Minister Norman Baker announced in a written answer that the Government had approved London Midland's request to reduce the opening hours of the new ticket office, from the previous 06:00 12:00 to 06:15 11:00 henceforth. In 2016, a coffee and snack kiosk opened in the new station booking hall.
With the advent of fast trains, Wolverton gained notoriety among railwaymen for its famously tight curve. The curve was a result of the station and main line being moved eastward in 1881, to permit extension of the Wolverton Works. The path of the original route is visible at both the north and south ends of the divergence. The Advanced Passenger Train failed its trials here in the early 1990s but the Pendolino tilting trains passed them in the early 2000s. Near the station, the track crosses the valley of the Great Ouse on a viaduct. Slightly further north, the Northampton loop leaves the main line at Hanslope Junction.
From 1865 to 1964, there was a branch line from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell, primarily for employees of Wolverton Works. In 1964 the line was closed to passengers by the Beeching cuts and freight ceased in 1967. Between 1817 and 1864, the section from Great Linford to Newport Pagnell was an arm of the Grand Junction Canal which was then drained to become the track-bed. The route from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell is now a redway. Along the redway, the platforms at New Bradwell and Great Linford are still in place, as are a signal post at Newport Pagnell and an iron bridge taking the line over the Grand Union Canal.
The station has four platforms, of which just two are normally in use. Platforms 1 and 2 are the 'fast' lines and trains very rarely stop here: they are used by London Northwestern only during works and Avanti West Coast in emergency. Platforms 3 and 4 are used frequently by London Northwestern: Avanti West Coast services pass these platforms only during works.
Location
The station is at the eastern end of Wolverton, near the junction of Stratford Rd with Grafton Street. The nearest post-code is MK12 5FR. In the chainage notation traditionally used on the railway, its location on the line is from Euston.
