The history of this route is tied to two railway companies and one man - Sir Edward Watkin who became chairman of the Metropolitan Railway in 1872, adding to his interests in the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR).

The Metropolitan had begun a process of expansion out of Central London into the suburbs in 1880 when it extended its branch line to Willesden Green out into Harrow. Further expansion followed throughout the 1880's, the Metropolitan reaching Chalfont and Chesham in 1889. All this expansion was designed to tap the potentially rich commuter traffic, which the Metropolitan thought (rightly) would develop from the towns along the way. However, the expansion was also part of Watkin's great scheme to build a new trunk railway line from the north to London and beyond. (He also had interests in the East London Line and the South Eastern Railway and hoped to link all these together to connect with a tunnel under the English Channel).

To complete the link between the Metropolitan and the MSLR, the former bought the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway in 1891 and connected Chalfont to Aylesbury the following year. The Aylesbury and Buckingham operated north as far as Quainton Road where, in 1898, the MSLR (which had become the Great Central Railway the previous year) opened its connection from the North. Now the GCR had a through route to London over a combination of its own tracks and those jointly administered with the Metropolitan. The GCR completed its own London terminus - Marylebone - in 1899.

Aylesbury Station in 1910

The Station at Verney Junction at about the same period

While the Metropolitan had a monopoly on local traffic south of Harrow, the joint Metropolitan/GCR line committee administered services from further north. So commuters from towns like Rickmansworth had the choice of fast services to Marylebone or slower services which ran right into the heart of the City of London on the Metropolitan. However Watkins had to resign his chairmanship of the Metropolitan and GCR in 1894 through ill health and the relationship between the companies progressively deteriorated. Although the two companies continued to cooperate on services through Rickmansworth and Harrow, the lack of capacity into London and the sharp curves and steep gradient of the Met line was an induced the Great Central to look for a second route into its new London terminus.

Meantime, anxious to build its services in what was a rural landscape, the Metropolitan promoted the area to both prospective commuters into London and to the growing weekend excursion business. Using the term "Metro-land" it described Buckinghamshire as "... beautiful unknown country ... the rural arcadia ... close to London" and published an annual guide throughout the early 20th Century which advertised and promoted properties to potential house buyers eager to escape London.

Unlike most other railway companies, the Metropolitan had direct interests in many of the estates that were built and their success can be seen in many of the estates built before and after World War One in Willesden, Wembley, Eastcote, Pinner, Rickmansworth and Amersham. They also benefited as the new home owners became new customers of the railway. For example, season ticket sales at Wembley Park increased four fold in the early 1920's as use of the Metropolitan's electric services increased.

Improvements to services were also introduced during the 1920s with electric services extended north from Wembley Park to Rickmansworth and the introduction of morning and afternoon Pullman cars on certain trains. Although electric, the services to the outer suburbs were locomotive hauled, with a steam locomotive being substituted at Rickmansworth for the journey onwards to Amersham and Aylesbury.

When London Transport took over services in 1933, the promotional activities ceased and services remained largely unchanged until the present day. However, in the early 1960s, London Underground extended their electric service further north into Amersham (including the small branch to Chesham), and introduced new electric multiple units to replace the loco hauled and elderly multiple-units then in use. With the full introduction of these trains, LU withdrew services beyond Amersham to Aylesbury with the consequence that the last steam hauled passenger train operated by LU ran in September 1961.

All services north of Amersham are today operated by Chiltern Railways using modern turbo-diesel trains while the Metropolitan continues to use the 1960's stock (classified A60), which have recently been updated and refurbished, on their services to Baker Street, Moorgate and Aldgate.

Class 165 on London bound train at Chalfont

LU - A stock train at Rickmansworth

© Ian Peacock & BucksRail
Last modified February 2001