The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust is a charity established in 1995 to promote a new 16-mile Waterway Park, incorporating a new navigable waterway connecting the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes to the River Great Ouse near Bedford. By car from St Neots or Bedford takes no more than 30 minutes to reach Milton Keynes. By boat it would take a couple of weeks!

The benefits provided to boaters in connecting the River Great Ouse to the national canal network are immense including increased tourism for towns like St.Ives and St.Neots. downriver from Bedford. There are also a whole range of wider benefits which the new Waterway Park can bring to the area, especially running through the Forest of Marston Vale. It will create new walking and cycling routes, great for the mental and physical health of our community, plus other, water based pursuits and a boost to local wildlife. . It may also help reduce local flooding and help move water across to East Anglia.

The John Bunyan Community Boat is run by the Trust’s social enterprise, raising funds and awareness of the project along with a sister craft, Electra, based on the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes. Both boats are, both owned by the Trust but are run by their own teams of volunteers. The John Bunyan Community Boat has cruised the River Great Ouse, in and around Bedford, since 2013 and has carried over 50,000 passengers since then.

It is licensed to carry up to 50 passengers a trip.and is currently running over 150 cruises a season, providing something for all the community. Eye-Spy, History and Little Walkers trips keep the young ones occupied in the school holidays.

There are also Afternoon Tea and Lunch cruises, a popular trip being to the Anchor at Great Barford, Fish and Chip Suppers, music cruise nights notably Jazz, Motown, and Irish, and charter cruises for celebrations, family parties, wedding cruises, local organisations, local companies, schools and youth groups.