Everything about The Chiltern Main Line totally explained
The
Chiltern Main Line is an inter-city and commuter
railway in the
United Kingdom, part of the
British railway system. It links
London and
Birmingham on a 106 mile route which runs via North West London,
Buckinghamshire,
Oxfordshire and
Warwickshire.
The line complements the
West Coast Main Line by providing an additional inter-city link between England's two largest cities, as well providing commuter services between London and Buckinghamshire and beyond.
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
London Midland, whilst
CrossCountry run services over the line between
Birmingham New Street and
Coventry to
Banbury as part of their services from
Scotland and the north of
England to the south coast of
England.
Line Speeds
This section needs expansion.
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 Railway (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:
The new route runs northwest via
Gerrards Cross to
High Wycombe, where the line met the existing route of the
Wycombe Railway's single-track branch from
Maidenhead. North of
High Wycombe station the existing route was reused, with significant upgrading of the formation, and a new route chosen for the up line north of
Saunderton (the existing route, taken by the down line, has a gradient of 1 in 88, too steep for the heavy
coal trains run by the GCR). Upon reaching
Princes Risborough, new construction was started again, running northwest to a point near the hamlet of
Dorton, where the line curved to the north to meet the GCR's main line at
Grendon Underwood Junction in
Buckinghamshire. The line was completed in
1906.
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. Various through services from
Marylebone to the GCR network also ran via the Joint Line.
In the
1960s, when the rival
West Coast Main Line (WCML) 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 reprieved 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
signal box at
Aynho Junction was closed and replaced with modern signalling controlled from Banbury South signal box; 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 hasn't 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.
As of September 2006, Chiltern has completed their
Evergreen 2 upgrade project. The project, which was carried out by
Carillion, realigned the track through
Beaconsfield to increase non-stop speeds from 40mph to 75mph, installed additional
signals between
High Wycombe and
Bicester North (as well as between
Princes Risborough and
Aylesbury), and added two new platforms to Marylebone. The new platforms are on the site of the old daytime carriage sidings, which were replaced with the new Wembley Light Maintenance Depot, just to the south and west of
Wembley Stadium station. The new platforms and partial resignalling of the station throat now make it possible to run 20 trains per hour in and out of the station.
In January 2007, Chiltern Railways became the first rail operator in the UK to sell train tickets and fulfill these to customers' mobile phones. The txt2mobile fulfilment method is available for Chiltern's advance purchase E-Day products. A barcode ticket is sent to the traveler's mobile phone using the SMS format, and this ticket can be scanned on the train or at the gate line at Marylebone Station. The ticket is then verified against a database of valid tickets.
Future
There are several plans for this route;
(External Link
) (External Link)
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 signal box.
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chiltern Main Line'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://chiltern_main_line.totallyexplained.com">Chiltern Main Line Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
)