Chiltern Main Line
Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHI : Chiltern Main Line
| Chiltern Main Line |
| Principal stations (from south to north)
London Marylebone Wembley Stadium Sudbury & Harrow Road Sudbury Hill Harrow Northolt Park South Ruislip West Ruislip Denham Denham Golf Club Gerrards Cross Seer Green & Jordans Beaconsfield High Wycombe Saunderton Princes Risborough (for Aylesbury branch line) Haddenham & Thame Parkway Bicester North King's Sutton Banbury (for Cherwell Valley Line) Leamington Spa (for line to Coventry) Warwick Warwick Parkway Hatton (for Stratford-upon-Avon branch line) Lapworth Dorridge Widney Manor Solihull Olton Acocks Green Tyseley Small Heath Birmingham Moor Street Birmingham Snow Hill |
The main towns served by the route, starting from London, are listed below.
- London Marylebone
- Wembley
- Sudbury
- Harrow
- Northolt
- *Joins New North Main Line from Old Oak Common via Greenford
- Ruislip
- Denham
- Gerrards Cross
- Seer Green and Jordans
- Beaconsfield
- High Wycombe
- Princes Risborough
- *Branch line diverges to Aylesbury
- Haddenham and Thame
- Bicester
- King's Sutton
- *Joins Cherwell Valley Line from Oxford
- Banbury
- Leamington Spa
- *Line diverges to Coventry
- Warwick
- Hatton
- *Line diverges to Stratford-upon-Avon
- Lapworth
- Dorridge
- Widney Manor
- Solihull
- Olton
- Acocks Green
- Tyseley
- *Line converges from Stratford-upon-Avon
- Small Heath
- Birmingham Moor Street
- Birmingham Snow Hill
- *Line continues to Stourbridge and Kidderminster
Passenger Services
Passenger services on the route are currently operated by Chiltern Railways. Some services between Birmingham Snow Hill and Leamington Spa are operated by Central Trains, whilst Virgin Trains run services over the line between Birmingham New Street and Coventry to Banbury as part of their cross-country services from Scotland and the north of England to the south coast of England.History
The original line from Birmingham to London was built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the 1850s, to connect Oxford to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.For many years, trains from Birmingham to London went the long way round via Oxford and then along the Great Western Main Line to London Paddington. In an attempt to compete with the LNWR's London-Birmingham route, the GWR took advantage of an existing partnership with the Great Central Railway (GCR) to build a new, direct route referred to as the Great Western and Great Central Joint Line (the two companies were already working together over a link between Woodford Halse station and Banbury station).
The new route started at Northolt Junction in Middlesex, from which two lines ran southward:
- a direct line, referred to as the New North Main Line, towards London Paddington via Greenford and Old Oak Common, built by the GWR. This line also included a triangular junction at Greenford, providing access to the 1838 Great Western Main Line via Castle Bar Park.
- a line via South Harrow and Wembley to meet the existing GCR route at Neasden South Junction, near Neasden station on the Jubilee Line. This is the line used by almost all Chiltern services.
Four years later, the GWR constructed a second line, starting at Ashendon Junction in Buckinghamshire, near Dorton, and running northwest via Bicester to meet the existing route from Oxford at Aynho Junction. This truncated the original Joint Line to Ashendon Junction, the section northwards of there being sold to the GCR after the completion of the Bicester cut-off.
The new shortcut provided both a faster route between London Paddington and Birmingham Snow Hill stations for the GWR, and a diversionary route for the GCR that would allow it to avoid the route of the Metropolitan Railway. During the heyday of the route, many prestigious trains ran from Paddington to the northwest of England via the Joint Line, reaching Wolverhampton, Chester, Liverpool and Birkenhead.
In the 1960s, when the rival West Coast Main Line was electrified, express services from London to Birmingham on this route were discontinued as part of the Beeching Axe; beforehand, it was even more heavily used by many long trains running from Liverpool and Birkenhead, as the WCML was restricted in capacity due to the electrification works. All local trains on the route were diverted to Marylebone in 1963, and Greenford station on the New North route between Old Oak Common and Northolt Junction was run down and eventually closed. The route was downgraded to secondary status in 1967, and subsequently single-tracked between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction, which remained a flying junction. Snow Hill station in Birmingham was also closed, along with the line to Wolverhampton.
The route was eventually considered for partial closure in the 1980s, with all services returning to Paddington via the New North route, and Marylebone station and all lines leading to it being closed - services to and from Aylesbury would have run via Princes Risborough. Marylebone was formally repreived in 1986, however, and the closure proposals were rescinded.
Services were expanded somewhat in the late 1980s, when Snow Hill station was re-opened, although they still ran from Marylebone rather than Paddington. In the early 1990s, the New North route between Old Oak Common and Northolt Junction was singled between Old Oak Common and Park Royal and also between Greenford and Northolt Junction. The Total Route Modernisation performed by BR in the early 1990s removed most of the vestigial traces of main line heritage from the route, downgrading it purely to a commuter line with a minimum of available infrastructure; until that point, High Wycombe station alone had retained almost all of its original track layout, the other major stations on the line having already been downgraded. In 1992, the old signalbox at Aynho Junction was closed and replaced with modern signalling controlled from Banbury South signalbox; the structure stood until 2002, when it was demolished. As part of these renovations, BR also installed the advanced Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system mainly as a trial with a view to rolling it out nationwide. However, privatisation intervened, and the Great Western Main Line was the only other line to be equipped with ATP.
Upon rail privatisation in the 1990s Chiltern Railways took over the route, and in 1998, the line between Princes Risborough and Bicester North was redoubled by the company. This included the total reconstruction of Haddenham and Thame Parkway station at platform level, with two side platforms instead of the single platform constructed in 1987. In 2002, after Chiltern won their 20-year franchise, the line between Bicester North and Aynho Junction was also redoubled.
Part of the old Great Western route from Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton is now used by the Midland Metro light rail system.
The line from Northolt Junction to Paddington alone has not been improved, and only one Chiltern train a day from Princes Risborough, and back, uses it, and only during the week (except on Wednesdays). Freight trains carrying refuse from London use the line, however, and it has been used as a diversion when work is taking place on the line to Marylebone, or when the normal line into Paddington is closed. HSTs are often sent around the Greenford loop via Ealing Broadway and Park Royal to turn them around for operational reasons.
Future
There are several plans the this route; [link] [link]
- All services to and from Birmingham Snow Hill could be operated by Chiltern Railways.
- The restoration of the quadruple track between South Ruislip and West Ruislip, allowing trains to call at both stations without blocking the line. Triple track currently exists at West Ruislip, with the up platform loop still in situ, and at South Ruislip, with the Down Main through line also in situ. This would involve the reconstruction of the down platform at West Ruislip, the reconstruction of the up platform at South Ruislip, and the demolition of West Ruislip signalbox.
- Building of the West Hampstead Interchange to allow easy interchange with the Silverlink Metro, Jubilee line, Metropolitan Line and Thameslink line. This would give Chiltern Railways an interchange with the future Orbirail line.
- A new railway built between Oxford and Princes Risborough, this would then give Oxford an alternative to the Oxford-Paddington route. The Oxford to Banbury spur would then be handed over to the Chiltern mainline to create a diversionary loop from Princes Risborough to Banbury via Oxford. This option requires an expensive crossing of the M40 motorway.
| Railway lines in Central England:''' | |
|---|---|
| Main lines: | Cross Country Route (MR)>Cross-Country Route Midland Main Line West Coast Main Line Birmingham-Peterborough via Leicester Line Birmingham-Worcester via Bromsgrove Line Birmingham-Worcester via Kidderminster Line Cherwell Valley Line Chiltern Main Line London-Aylesbury Line Welsh Marches Line Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury Line |
| Commuter lines: | Birmingham-Rugeley "Chase" Line Birmingham-Stratford Line Birmingham-Walsall Line Coventry-Nuneaton Line Cross-City Line Leicester-Loughborough "Ivanhoe" Line Robin Hood Line Stourbridge Junction-Stourbridge Town Line Walsall-Wolverhampton Line |
| Rural lines: | Cotswold Line Derwent Valley Line Leamington to Stratford Line>Leamington-Stratford Line Marston Vale Line Nottingham-Lincoln Line Nottingham to Grantham Line Oxford-Bicester Line Princes Risborough-Aylesbury Line Shrewsbury-Chester Line Crewe-Derby Line |
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