This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2023)

London–Aylesbury line
Amersham station
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	London Underground Network Rail
Locale	Greater London South East England
Termini	London Marylebone Aylesbury Vale Parkway (Passenger) Calvert (Freight)
Stations	16
Service
Type	Commuter rail,Suburban rail,Rapid transit
System	London Underground National Rail
Services	2
Operator(s)	London Underground (Metropolitan line) Chiltern Railways
Depot(s)	Neasden (Met),Aylesbury TMD (Chiltern)
Rolling stock	S Stock Class 165 "Networker Turbo" Class 168 "Clubman"
History
Opened	1892 (fully)
Closed	Quainton Rd – Verney Junction/Brill – 1936 North of Calvert (GCML) – 1966
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	750VDCfourth rail (LUL section only)
Operating speed	75 mph (121 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e London–Aylesbury line
Legend
Great Central Main Line Varsity Line (futureEast West Rail) Calvert Freight Depot Calvert toChiltern Main Line Metropolitan Railway toBrill │ toVerney Junction Quainton Road Waddesdon Manor Aylesbury Vale Parkway Aylesbury Maintenance Depot Aylesbury Aylesbury– Princes Risborough line Stoke Mandeville Wendover Great Missenden London Underground boundary Amersham Metropolitan line toChesham Chalfont & Latimer Chorleywood M25 motorway Rickmansworth Watford & Rickmansworth Rly Metropolitan line toWatford Watford South Junction Non-stop section Non-stop section Grand Union Canal/River Colne Moor Park (LU only) Northwood Northwood Hills Pinner North Harrow Harrow Junction Metropolitan line toUxbridge Harrow-on-the-Hill London Underground boundary Non-stop section Non-stop section Northwick Park West Coast Main Line &Watford DC line Preston Road Jubilee line toStanmore Wembley Park Neasden JunctionChiltern ML Neasden Dudding Hill Line Dollis Hill Willesden Green Kilburn North London line West Hampstead Finchley Road Jubilee &Metropolitan lines toBaker Street Hampstead tunnel West Coast Main Line &Watford DC line St. John's Wood tunnel Lords tunnel Regent's Canal London Marylebone

TheLondon–Aylesbury line is arailway line betweenLondon Marylebone andAylesbury, going via theChiltern Hills; passenger trains are operated byChiltern Railways. Nearly half of the line is owned byLondon Underground, approximately 16 miles (26 km) – the total length of the passenger line is about 39 miles (63 km) with a freight continuation.

The line is part of the former trunk route, theGreat Central Main Line.

The route towards Aylesbury opened in stages between 1868 and 1899:

1. The Metropolitan & St. John's Wood Railway (later part of theMetropolitan Railway) opened fromBaker Street toSwiss Cottage in 1868.
2. TheAylesbury and Buckingham Railway connectedVerney Junction withAylesbury in 1868. The route would become part of the Met in 1891.
3. In 1879 the Met was extended from Swiss Cottage toWillesden Green.
4. In 1880 toHarrow-on-the-Hill.
5. In 1885 toPinner.
6. In 1887 toRickmansworth.
7. In 1889 toChesham.
8. Then in September 1892 the Metropolitan connected toAylesbury viaAmersham, making theChesham route a branch line.

TheGreat Central Railway (GCR) decided to build a main line calledtheLondon Extension from Annesley Junction north ofNottingham to London via the Metropolitan Railway. It was the last main line to be built in Britain in the Victorian era. The line was completed in 1899. In 1903 the line between Harrow and Canfield Place (near Finchley Road) was built, thus bypassing this part of the Metropolitan tracks. The route was a major trunk route with many prestigious trains, such asThe Master Cutler andThe South Yorkshireman.

The line beyond Aylesbury Vale Parkway is currently closed to almost all passenger services: the Metropolitan line service north of Aylesbury to Verney Junction andBrill was withdrawn in 1936 asLondon Transport (LT) wanted to focus more closely on London.

The line north west from Harrow was electrified in stages. In 1925, four rail electrification reached Rickmansworth and Watford, and the Metropolitan Railway planned to electrify the line as far as Aylesbury by 1935. However, when the Met was absorbed into LT the plans were put on hold. Electrification of the final leg of the Met finally got under way in the late 1950s, but LT decided later to electrify only up to Amersham. The original intention to electrify further is evidenced by the colour light signalling which was fully installed as far as Aylesbury and by platform extensions up to Stoke Mandeville. In 1961 LT withdrew the Metropolitan line from Aylesbury and since then it goes only as far as Amersham. Following the end of steam-hauled Metropolitan line trains in 1961 the service was provided byBritish Rail Class 115 diesel multiple units until 1992 (which were then replaced by the line's current rolling stock) – along with Metropolitan line electric multiple units south of Amersham. The last steam train ran on 17 June 1962 and the timetable from 18 June reduced the London to Aylesbury timings from 90 minutes to 59.^[1] Responsibility for the line north of Amersham was transferred from London Transport to British Railways on 11 September 1961; London Underground signage at the stations on this section was gradually replaced by those of British Railways.

The mainline services north of Aylesbury (via Woodford Halse, Rugby and Loughborough toNottingham Victoria and beyond) were withdrawn in 1966 as theGreat Central Main Line was seen byDr Beeching as a duplicate of theMidland Main Line. Now only freight services toCalvert and on certain Bank Holidays special passenger train service runs to and fromQuainton Road. The track remainsin situ from Calvert west toBicester Village and the line toBletchley is being reconstructed for future reopening as part ofEast West Rail.

InterCity 125 trains were used on the line, albeit rarely, during the 1980s.^[2] Also in the 1980s, there were passenger specials north to Milton Keynes from Marylebone via Aylesbury and High Wycombe, which picked up passengers atQuainton Road and the disusedWinslow railway station.^[3]

Up until 1993, trains heading for Aylesbury stopped atMoor Park.^{[citation needed]} However, due to low passenger demand and complications with the London fares zone,^{[citation needed]} the service was scrapped and trains went directly through to Rickmansworth.

On 14 December 2008,Chiltern Railways opened a new station,Aylesbury Vale Parkway. This station is situated two miles NW of Aylesbury station.

From Marylebone the line runs through a series of tunnels as far asFinchley Road, from where the line runs overground and runs parallel to theMetropolitan andJubilee lines. At Neasden Junction, theChiltern Main Line diverges to the west, while the Aylesbury line continues north parallel to the underground lines. The line then joins the Metropolitan line tracks a few yards south ofHarrow-on-the-Hill station and shares this track with theLondon Underground's fast Metropolitan line services to Amersham fromBaker Street. BeyondMoor Park, the line toWatford diverges.

BetweenRickmansworth andChorleywood, theM25 motorway crosses on aviaduct. AfterChalfont & Latimer station, the Chesham branch diverges, and the main line continues to Amersham, the terminus for Metropolitan line trains. Beyond Amersham, the line returns toNetwork Rail control and runs northwest to Aylesbury, following theA413 road. ThePrinces Risborough line joins the main line at Aylesbury, where Chiltern Railways have a maintenance depot. There, the line becomes single track, and afterAylesbury Vale Parkway, freight only, passing throughQuainton Road toCalvert, the site of a major wastetransfer station andlandfill site. Beyond Calvert, atthe former junction, the line turns east to join theVarsity Line, while thetrackbed of the former Great Central Main Line continues northwest.

London Underground own the track and co-run on the line betweenHarrow on the Hill and the property boundary north ofAmersham.^[4]

The line serves the following stations:

• LondonMarylebone
• Harrow on the Hill
• Rickmansworth
• Chorleywood
• Chalfont andLatimer
• Amersham
• Great Missenden
• Wendover
• Stoke Mandeville
• Aylesbury
• Aylesbury Vale Parkway
• (Quainton Road)

Passenger services are provided byChiltern Railways. FromMarylebone to Neasden Junction the track is shared with the Chiltern Main Line and fromHarrow toAmersham the track is shared withLondon Underground's Metropolitan line, and is used by their "fast" services. As a result, all Chiltern trains must be fitted with the tripcock braking system to run on Underground lines. Marylebone Signalling Control Centre controls all the signals on the line between Marylebone and south of Harrow, and also from north of Amersham to Aylesbury. Marylebone can see all train movements throughout the line but does not control the signals on the Metropolitan line section. These are operated by London Underground signal cabins at Harrow, Rickmansworth and Amersham. The Network Rail-controlled section of the line is fully equipped withATP, one of three lines in Britain to have this (the others being theChiltern Main Line and theGreat Western Main Line). As a result, all Chiltern trains must be equipped with ATP equipment.

The line operates lower frequency timetables during autumn as trains need to take more time to brake due to the leaves that fall on the line in the heavily wooded section between Amersham and Rickmansworth.^[5]

As of 28 December 2014^[update]:^[6]

† – tph =train(s)perhour

• Following completion of a major track work project in December 2006, journey times on the line were cut by about 10 minutes. Major track replacement work is under way on theLondon Underground parts of the line, to increase maximum speeds and reduce delays.^[9]
• The line north of Aylesbury was reopened to regular passenger traffic in 2008 as far as the newAylesbury Vale Parkway station.^[10] In the long term, the line is to reopen beyond Aylesbury Vale Parkway to allow passenger services to reachMilton Keynes Central andBedford viaEast West Rail.^{[11][12][full citation needed][13]}
• A proposal announced in March 2010 would have routed the future high speed line,High Speed 2, parallel with a section of theChiltern Main Line. If this was undertaken, it would have been a non-stop service, with no interconnections with the Chiltern Line.^[14]

These are the passenger usage statistics on theNational Rail network from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2022. Large increases in 2010-11 in some stations are mainly due to the introduction of Oyster Cards on the National Rail Network. The reason there were no usage figures in the first three years for stations from Amersham to Harrow-on-the-Hill was because these figures were not yet separated from theLondon Underground figures, who own and share the same tracks at this point. Aylesbury Vale Parkway has no previous data for the first five years as it only opened in 2008.^[15]

• Foxell, Clive (2010).The Metropolitan Line. History Press.ISBN 978-0-7524-5396-5.
• Horne, Mike (2003).The Metropolitan Line, an Illustrated History. Capital Transport.ISBN 978-1-85414-275-7.

• Rail transport in Buckinghamshire
• Rail transport in Hertfordshire
• Railway lines in London
• Railway lines in South East England
• Standard gauge railways in England
• Transport in the London Borough of Brent
• Transport in the London Borough of Camden
• Transport in the London Borough of Harrow
• Transport in the London Borough of Hillingdon
• Transport in the City of Westminster
• Rickmansworth

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from May 2017
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• CS1 errors: missing title
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles in need of updating from January 2023
• All Wikipedia articles in need of updating
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2024
• Articles containing potentially dated statements from December 2014
• All articles containing potentially dated statements
• All articles with incomplete citations
• Articles with incomplete citations from August 2023
• Use dmy dates from September 2019