Chiltern Main Line

London Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill
Chiltern Railways train at West Ruislip
Geographically correct alignment of the Chiltern Main Line
Route length:	171 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed:	160 km / h
Dual track :	Yes
Legend London Marylebone Lord's tunnel St John's Wood Tunnel WCML / DC Line West Hampstead CML platforms planned Hampstead Tunnel North London Line Dudding Hill Line Neasden Junction to Aylesbury Vale Parkway Dudding Hill Line from Acton Central Wembley Stadium WCML Sudbury & Harrow Road Sudbury Hill Harrow Northolt Park NNML from Paddington / CL from Epping Northolt Junction South Ruislip Ruislip Gardens today only Central Line West Ruislip terminus Central Line South Harefield Uxbridge High Street Denham Denham Golf Club Gerrards Cross Seer Green & Jordans Beaconsfield from Maidenhead High Wycombe West Wycombe Saunderton Princes Risborough to Aylesbury / to Chinnor Ilmer Hadenham Hadenham & Thame Parkway Ashendon Junction to the Great Central Main Line Dorton Brill & Ludgershall Blackthorn Varsity Line Bicester North Ardley Aynho Park from Didcot Parkway Aynho Junction from Cheltenham King's Sutton from Verney Junction Banbury Great Central Main Line Cropredy from Bedford Fenny Compton to the Kineton Depot Southam Road & Harbury from rugby Leamington Spa to Coventry Warwick Warwick Parkway Hatton to Stratford-upon-Avon Lapworth Dorridge Widney Manor Solihull Olton Acocks Green from Stratford-upon-Avon Tyseley Small Heath to Birmingham New Street Birmingham Bordesley Birmingham Moor Street Snow Hill Tunnel Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester

New North Main Line
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	partially
Legend Great Western Main Line from Paddington Old Oak Junction GWML after Bristol Temple Meads Old Oak Lane North London Line North Acton only Central Line since 1947 Park Royal 1903-1937 Park Royal West 1932-1948 Piccadilly Line Twyford Abbey 1904-1911 Brentham 1911-1915 / 1920-1947 Perivale only Central Line since 1947 from / to West Ealing Greenford Northolt only Central Line since 1948 Chiltern Main Line from Marylebone Northolt Junction South Ruislip CML to Birmingham SH

Maidenhead-High Wycombe
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend GWML from Paddington Maidenhead GWML after Bristol Temple Meads Maidenhead Bone Hill Furze Platt Cookham Marlow Bourne End Wooburn Green Loudwater Chiltern Main Line High Wycombe

Cherwell Valley Line
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend GWML from Paddington Didcot Parkway GWML to / from Bristol Temple Meads Appleford Culham Abingdon Abingdon Junction Radley Abingdon Road Hinksey Oxford Oxford North Junction to Bicester Wolvercot Platform to Worcester Kidlington Bletchington Tackley Heyford Fritwell & Somerton Aynho Chiltern Main Line from Marylebone Aynho Junction Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham SH

The Chiltern Main Line is a double-track, non-electrified main line in England. Along with the West Coast Main Line, it is one of the two rail connections between London and Birmingham . It is owned by Network Rail .

history

Chiltern Main Line

The beginnings

In 1852 the Great Western Railway opened its line from London via Oxford and Leamington Spa to Birmingham . London was approached at Paddington Station . In 1854 it was extended to Wolverhampton . However, the trains had a long travel distance, so they were not competitive with the faster London and North Western Railway (today's West Coast Main Line). This line comprised several parts of today's Chiltern Main Line, such as the Birmingham – Aynho Junction and the Princes Risborough – High Wycombe section . In between, it led over the Cherwell Valley Line and the Wycombe Railway to Maidenhaid Station , then merged into the Great Western Main Line to Paddington.

Extensions

In order to keep up with the LNWR, the GWR entered into a partnership with the Great Central Railway , which in turn planned a main line from London to Leeds and Manchester , the later and now decommissioned Great Central Main Line , and opened it in 1899. To this end, the GWR built a new line from High Wycombe to South Ruislip by 1906 , where the joint project was to begin at a junction called '' Northolt Junction ''. Two routes were realized:

• A direct high-speed line, called the New North Main Line , which runs via Greenford Station to Old Oak Common , where it joins the GWML to Paddington. In Greenford, a track triangle is also planned to connect a branch line of the GWML.
• The route used today mainly by Chiltern Railways via Wembley to Neasden , then merges into the GCML to London Marylebone at the Neasden Junction . The building permit was issued in 1898 and opened to traffic in 1906.

In addition, the section between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough was expanded to double-track - north of Saunderton, the lines are briefly separated on the horizontal and vertical levels, as the old line - which is now used for trains to London - for the coal trains of the Great Central Railway were difficult. The lane towards Birmingham crosses the eponymous Chiltern Hills in a tunnel, while the one towards London runs along the valley floor. In 1906 a small branch line including the Uxbridge High Street terminus was built, which was shut down again in 1964 and demolished. After the opening, both parties benefited: GWR was now able to accelerate its express trains from Paddington to Birmingham and GCR was able to separate long-distance and freight traffic towards the East Midlands from regional traffic to Aylesbury. In 1910, the GWR opened a faster direct line from Aynho Junction to Haddenham, the old route was sold to the GCR, which now took over the sole operation on this. This route enabled GWR to save the detour via Oxford, which gave it a faster route of around 32 kilometers.

Nationalization, beeching ax and possible decommissioning

When the British railways were nationalized in 1948, the Chiltern Main Line came into possession of the Western Region of British Railways, which continued to operate the express trains between London and Wolverhampton, as the West Coast Main Line came into possession of the London Midland Region's (LMR) and the competitive situation with it persisted.

After the closure of the Great Central Main Line between Calvert and Rugby, the trains from northern and central England to southern England were also carried on the Chiltern Main Line.

On March 6, 1967, after the electrification of the West Coast Main Line, the Chiltern Main Line's London – Wolverhampton express trains were canceled as part of the Beeching ax . Numerous stations were also closed, including the Birmingham Snow Hill train station in 1972, and the Snow Hill Tunnel was closed in 1968. The remaining regional trains from Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham ended from now on in Moor Street station , the remaining direct trains from Paddington to Birmingham were led to New Street . They stopped at six intermediate stations, but were again led on the old route via Oxford and Reading . The operation was run every two hours, just like that of the suburban trains from Marylebone to Banbury.

In 1980, the closure of the southern part of the route between South Ruislip and Marylebone and the remainder of the Great Central Main Line from Aylesbury to Marylebone was requested. All trains were to be routed to Paddington on the New North Main Line . While Marylebone station would be completely abolished, Aylesbury station would still have maintained the rail connection via the branch line to Princes Rinsborough. The closure plans were put on hold in 1986.

Between 1988 and 1992, British Rail had the line renovated, but it was degraded to a suburban line with only a limited amount of infrastructure. The four-lane section between West Ruislip and the Northolt Junction junction was reduced to two tracks, and High Wycombe station also lost most of its sidings after it was the only one who had survived this measure at the Beeching ax.

In 1987 the new Haddenham & Thame Parkway station was opened and in the same year Snow Hill station in Birmingham was reactivated. Regional trains ending in Moor Street from the south have been extended through the Snow Hill Tunnel.

In the 1990s, the once double-track line between Old Oak Common and the former Park Royal station and between Greenford and South Ruislip was rebuilt to one track. This was the last construction work on the line to date, an attempted replacement of the old signaling system with remote control from the Slough and Marylebone stations was rejected due to the high costs and low income.

In 1991 the M40 motorway between Birmingham and Oxford was opened parallel to the route, which gave the towns and villages along the way an upswing, from which the Chiltern Main Line could also benefit. In the same year new type 165 trains were purchased, which were mainly used in the London area. In 1993 the trains from Marylebone to Banbury to Birmingham were extended, in 1994 the two-hour service was extended to one hour. In 1995, Snow Hill became a through station again when the direct line to Worcester , which was also closed during the Beeching era, was reopened and trains from this direction returned to Snow Hill instead of New Street.

After privatization, the M40 consortium was awarded the contract to operate Chiltern Railways in 1996, which also committed to modernization measures. The Haddenham & Thame Parkway station, which only opened in 1987, was built from scratch and the section between Princes Risborough and North Bicester expanded to double-track. 1998 saw the delivery of the new British Class 1968 diesel trains, which once again reduced the travel time between London and Birmingham with a top speed of 100 miles an hour (160 kilometers per hour).

In 2000 the Warwick Parkway station was opened, which was close to the motorway and trunk roads. It also made it possible for the cities south of Birmingham, which have no direct rail access, to be connected to the network.

In 2002, Chiltern Railways , owned by Deutsche Bahn since 2008 , was awarded the contract to operate until 2022 and Network Rail had the Bicester North-Aynho Junction section double-track. It also took over the operation of the stations between Leamington Spa and Birmingham after it was also awarded the contract to operate trains to Stratford-upon-Avon.

In the meantime, most of the route as well as the Cherwell Valley Line have been upgraded in terms of signaling. The section between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton is used by the Midland Metro light rail network .

In 2006 Marylebone station received two new tracks, which were built in place of a parking facility that had been moved to North London, and the new Wembley Stadium station also went into operation. The station was designed for a maximum traffic of 20 trains per hour. In contrast to the old train station, it is located directly on the railway line and is no longer connected to a turning loop.

New North Main Line

opening

The NNML was opened in 1903 as a joint project of the LNWR and the GCR. Today, however, its official name is Acton Northolt Line .

Parallel operation with the underground

In the 1930s, according to the London Board of Transport, it was planned that the Central Line of London Underground between West Acton and West Ruislip station should run a double-lane underground line parallel to the NNML double-lane. Due to the Second World War , the Central Line extension could only be opened in 1947/1948. At the same time, all intermediate stations of the NNML except for Greenford station , as it had a transfer function to a branch line of the GWML, and Ruislip Gardens on the CML were shut down, but only Northolt , Perivale , North Acton and Ruislip Gardens were reactivated by the underground. The Park Royal and Park Royal West stops were abandoned in favor of the Piccadilly Line - Park Royal station . Unlike the Metropolitan line between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham or the Watford DC Line between Queens Park and Harrow & Wealdstone, the railroad and underground do not use the same tracks.

Loss of importance

The importance of the route decreased for the first time with the merger of the British railway companies to form British Rail , as this was with the West Coast Main Line , the East Coast Main Line , the Great Central Main Line , the Midland Main Line and the New North Main Line / Chiltern Main Line had five connections from London to Central and Northern England, but the first two were the most important.

The New North Main Line experienced its heyday in the 1960s when, due to the electrification of the WCML and the associated operational restrictions, numerous trains from London to the north of England and Scotland via the NNML and then further via the Chiltern Main Line or the Great Central Main line led. After the electrification of the WCML, the express train connections were reduced to the WCML and the ECML under the so-called Beeching ax . While the Great Central Main Line even had to be shut down, the NNML continued to operate, but all stations were closed because the regional trains also ran to Marylebone from 1963 onwards. Greenford Station kept its platforms on the underground and on the GWML branch line to West Ealing, but the NNML platforms were closed. The platform of the branch line is a head platform and it has no track connection to the NNML.

business

Chiltern Main Line

Chiltern Railways offers direct trains along the entire length between Marylebone and Snow Hill, run by diesel trains of the types British Class 150 , British Class 165 and British Class 168 . It also operates suburban trains in the metropolitan areas of London and Birmingham. The London Midland railway company also runs passenger trains between Birmingham Snow Hill and Dorridge, some of which are even extended to Leamington Spa . The Arriva subsidiary CrossCountry uses the route between Leamington Spa and the Aynho Junction junction for its trains running around London between Northern and Central England and Scotland and Southern England. It also runs direct trains between Birmingham and Bournemouth . The original route via Oxford is used by the First Great Western with the relation from Paddington to Banbury . Until the end of operations on February 28, 2011, the railway company Wrexham & Shropshire ran individual pairs of trains from Marylebone to Wrexham , which had also used the Chiltern Main Line to Leamington Spa. Due to the low top speeds (96 kilometers per hour between Princes Risborough and Bicester), no high-speed trains or sprinters are used.

New North Main Line

According to the timetable, the NNML will only be used on weekdays by a single Chiltern Railways train pair between Gerrards Cross and Paddington. However, it is of greatest importance in freight transport, as it offers a way of bypassing London from west to east. It is also used to transfer empty railroad cars and as an alternative route for any closings of the Paddington or Marylebone stations and for training runs and test runs of new trains.

Trivia

• Like the Chiltern Main Line in Birmingham, the railway lines approaching Snow Hill Station instead of New Street are commonly referred to as Snow Hill Lines .
• The southern access tracks to Birmingham New Street Station pass just below Moor Street Station, but there is no rail link
• Since the Snow Hill Tunnel is overloaded and it cannot be expanded due to the risk of collapse or the demolition work required for the construction, some trains coming from London are already turning into Moor Street, which will also have head platforms in its expansion phase.

future

High speed 2

The km for speeds up to 400 / h intended, planned high-speed rail High Speed 2 would the terminus Euston initially performed in a tunnel, they will leave the west Paddington, where the station Old Oak Common from 2025 a change junctions for GWML and Crossrail is provided . It then leads north along the NNML and parts of the Chiltern Main Line before it will embark on its own route. In Birmingham, the planned high-speed train station Curzon Street is planned not far from the Moor Street station, a connecting structure between Curzon Street , Moor Street and New Street is also planned.

Chiltern Main Line

Further expansion

The remainder of the line is also to be double-tracked for £ 200 million under the project name Evergreen 3 so that a new train route can be introduced between Marylebone and Oxford. The maximum permissible speed of the CML of 160 km / h is also to be introduced for a further 80 kilometers and the junctions from Aynho, Northolt and Neasden are also to be made passable for higher speeds. The travel time from Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street would be reduced from the current 117 to 92 minutes. Another stop is planned at Bicester at a trunk road intersection. According to Chiltern Railways, this is one of the largest rail projects that taxpayers don't have to dig into.

electrification

The line is not electrified, but electrification is planned for the long term. However, no investments in this direction are planned in the near future, as the project after Oxford has a higher priority.

Other Projects

West Hampstead

The Chiltern Main Line runs east of West Hampstead Station on the North London Line , Jubilee Line and Thameslink , but has no platforms. The plan is to convert the station complex into a transfer hub with the previous lines, but also new platforms on the Chiltern Main Line and the reactivation of those on the Metropolitan Line .

Ruislip

The four-lane section between South Ruislip and West Ruislip, which was dismantled to double lanes in 1992, is to be expanded again. In addition, parts of the two stations are to be rebuilt.

Web links

• The Evergreen 3

Individual evidence

1. ^ MacDermot, ET (1927). History of the Great Western Railway, volume I 1833-1863., Pp. 326/327
2. ↑ http://www.trackmaps.co.uk/
3. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ http://birminghamcentral.blogspot.com/2010/01/evergreen-moor-street.html
5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/business/2008/08/29-chiltern-railways-upgrade.html
7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/track%20access/1%20current%20consultations/2009.10.27%20chiltern%20railways%2073rd%20supplemental%20agreement%20-%20closing%20date%20for% 20responses% 2023% 20november% 202009 / form% 2022% 2073rd% 20for% 20eg3.pdf
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Broadbent, Steve (May 5, 2010). "Happy Ever After". RAIL (Peterborough): p. 16.
11. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated June 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.