High Wycombe Line

The bad relations between the Great Central Railway (GCR) and the Metropolitan which started to develop after Watkin's retirement from both companies became further exacerbated as increasing volumes of Metropolitan traffic south of Harrow led to congestion of their joint line into London. As a consequence, the GCR started to look for a second route into its new London terminal at Marylebone and quickly found an alliance with the Great Western Railway (GWR).

The GWR itself was suffering from growing competition on a number of its routes, especially that to Birmingham where it competed with the London North Western Railway's route out of London Euston. In the 19th century, the GWR's route to Birmingham was via Oxford and, as a consequence, was much slower than the rival LNWR's. The GWR realised that a new line, incorporating parts of the GWR system in Buckinghamshire, could be laid which would significantly reduce the journey time to Birmingham and potentially attract additional traffic. For its part, the the GCR saw that, by linking this projected line to its own system at each end, they could obtain the second route into the capital which they needed.

In 1899 the two companies joined forces and the GWR/GCR joint line through High Wycombe was born. The GWR laid a new line from Old Oak (just outside its own Paddington terminus) North westwards towards Northolt, where it connected with a new branch of the GCR which left the existing their existing line at Neasden. It was built on the grand scale in attempt to attract commuter traffic from the growing suburbs, with palatial stations at Wembley, Sudbury, and Northolt.

Having joined forces at Northolt, the line traveled north west through the villages of Ruislip, Denham, Gerrards Cross, and Beaconsfield before reaching High Wycombe where it joined the GWR's existing branch line from Slough. Mindful that the new line was to provide main-line connections to the Midlands and the North as well as commuter services into London, the stations were laid out in the grand scale with through roads for the expresses. At High Wycombe this caused problems because of station's location and new platforms had to be built on the upside, off set from the downside main building.


These views of Gerrards Cross were taken by John Duell in the 1980s. They show the old track layout with through lines (soon to be re-introduced) with a DMU in the down platform and King Arthur class Sir Lamiel on a steam charter approaching the Up platform.

Beyond High Wycombe, the GWR's line need to be upgraded for its new role and stations at West Wycombe, Saunderton and Princes Risborough all were remodeled and upgraded. At Princes Risborough, the branch to Aylesbury and the GCR curved away to the East, while the mainline moved forward to Bicester to join the GWR's Oxford to Birmingham line at Aynho. At Ashendon the GCR built a short connection to its mainline, thus giving direct connection from the north.

Construction started in 1901 and most of the line was available from 1906. Many of the GCR express trains were re-routed over the new route and both companies enjoyed increased patronage as the suburbs started to grow immediately before and after World War 2.

However with the coming of British Railways the original Great Central route to the Midlands and the North started to decline, eventually closing over much of its route in the 1960s. Much of the inner commuter business disappeared to the Underground as the Piccadilly and the Central both offered frequent services through the same inner London areas.

There was even a plan to close Marylebone altogether and convert the inner London section to a bus-way, a plan which fortunately was quashed. Since then, commuter services have again started to flourish and Chiltern Railways has seen substantial increases in its business since taking over the line as the first privatisation company to operate rail services on the national network.