Study could look into reopening Bourne End to Wycombe train line

[ess]

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co...Bourne-End-to-Wycombe-train-line-06052014.htm




Study could look into reopening Bourne End to Wycombe train line

The historic railway link between Bourne End and High Wycombe could be restored more than 40 years after its closure.

The Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (Bucks LEP) has applied to central government for a £30,000 grant to pay for a study into the demand and economic benefits of reopening the line.

Bucks LEP's application is part of its Strategic Economic Plan and a total ask of £26m to help enhance prosperity and employment in the county.

If built the line would connect with the already established route from Bourne End to Maidenhead.

The former 9km track, built during the 1850s, connected Bourne End station with High Wycombe station via Loudwater.

It closed in 1970 due to a lack of passengers.

In 1976 the route was safeguarded as a future route for cycling or walking by Wycombe District Council (WDC).

This safeguarding has been retained.

Bucks LEP believes a service between the towns will enhance economic links between Buckinghamshire and Berkshire as well as help reduce traffic.

The last feasibility study into rebuilding the line took place in 2009 but the idea to reinstate the train line was scrapped due to high costs.

It is estimated reintroducing the service would cost between £40m and £100m and would follow the path of the former line as closely as possible although would require some redirection in order to avoid residential gardens.

Susan Morrison, chairman of the Marlow Maidenhead Passenger Association (MMPA) supports the plan.

She said: "A lot of people always say 'isn't it a shame that the line was closed?'.

"The A404 and London Road is so congested, they are going to build all those houses in Slate Meadow how are those people going to get to work?"

"The line could be a big help."

Bucks LEP will find out if it will receive the money in July.

 

[455driver]

Only 9km, I would have thought it was further than that!

I was going to ask what sort of loadings this route would expect but it would be a viable alternative route for a lot of people plus with the route being safeguarded it wouldnt be a problem to reinstate it. I wish them well!

 

[Buttsy]

Only 9km, I would have thought it was further than that!

I was going to ask what sort of loadings this route would expect but it would be a viable alternative route for a lot of people plus with the route being safeguarded it wouldnt be a problem to reinstate it. I wish them well!

There is a level crossing in Bourne End that would need re-instatement or bridge to avoid it (the road immediately outside the station could be closed off as there is an alternative route), a few buildings to knock down to get out of Bourne End and in the Wooburn Green and Wycombe Marsh areas.

 

[Emyr]

would follow the path of the former line as closely as possible although would require some redirection in order to avoid residential gardens.

Pathetic.

 

[RPM]

Nice if it could be achieved but I foresee formidable NIMBY opposition.

 

[The Planner]

Would be interesting to see what Chiltern make of it. I can see it in a local connectivity extent but as long as people dont start getting grand ideas of running long distance traffic from Paddington to x, y or z via High Wycombe as I cant see that ever happening.

 

[gordonthemoron]

surely the best outcome would be to extend FGW services to High Wycombe (and no further)?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

surely the best outcome would be to extend FGW services to High Wycombe (and no further)?

It did provide a through service from London to Aylesbury (via Princes Risborough) from 1863.
The alternative was to change at Cheddington out of Euston.
It was another 29 years before the Met and GC turned up at Aylesbury from 1892.
The Wycombe Railway was also built to broad gauge, although single track.
In fact services ran as far as Verney Junction on the LNWR Oxford-Bletchley line.
Any plan for reinstatement will need to worry about the low-capacity single track from Maidenhead.

 

[TheKnightWho]

Pathetic.

Yeah, how dare we respect people's property rights :roll:

It's not like it'll make much difference.

 

[Emyr]

Cheaper to apply compulsory purchase to the strips of land that used to be railway anyway than to apply expensive engineering effort to redesigning the alignment, surely?

Such an event is a foreseeable risk those people should have foreseen.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Let me ask the obvious question of what level of bus services cover the said route and what is the loading levels of these. Is there a high car ownership level in the area under discussion ?

Were Wooburn Green and Loudwater the only two original railway stations between Bourne End and Wycombe ?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Let me ask the obvious question of what level of bus services cover the said route and what is the loading levels of these. Is there a high car ownership level in the area under discussion ?
Were Wooburn Green and Loudwater the only two original railway stations between Bourne End and Wycombe ?

The business case won't be based on local travel.
The driver is Chilterns-Thames Valley commuting (eg High Wycombe/Aylesbury/Bicester-Maidenhead/Slough/Reading/Heathrow.
There might be no new stations.

 

[SansPareil]

A cursory look at a satellite view suggests that it's not simply gardens, but a couple of residential streets and a small retail/industrial estate that have been built on the formation. Given the topography a new formation could well be cheaper once you'd paid all the lawyers, compulsory purchased, compensated, demolished and made good the old formation.

I'd imagine if this was reopened it would involve the branch being electrified, and probably tied in with Chiltern electrification as well, which must be quite far down the list.

In terms of medium term plans though it sounds like one of the more sensible suggestions for reopening.

 

[Ironside]

Let me ask the obvious question of what level of bus services cover the said route and what is the loading levels of these. Is there a high car ownership level in the area under discussion ?

Were Wooburn Green and Loudwater the only two original railway stations between Bourne End and Wycombe ?

According to the new addlestrop online atlas, Wikipedia and Smith and Turners Railway atlas it was just the two stations you mentioned.

 

[al green]

The business case won't be based on local travel.
The driver is Chilterns-Thames Valley commuting (eg High Wycombe/Aylesbury/Bicester-Maidenhead/Slough/Reading/Heathrow.
There might be no new stations.

Indeed. A couple of years ago I suggested to Bucks CC that this line should be re-opened and the proposed EWR MK-Ayl-HW-Mbone service should be diverted to Maidenhead via this route instead of Mbone. That would give those towns a one - change route to Heathrow via the also proposed WRATH. BCC weren't interested at the time but it looks as though things have changed.

 

[londiscape]

I suspect that one of the main objections to this scheme will be the necessary reopening of the old level crossings over the A4094 right outside the station, and the A4155 Cores End Road just beyond.

Can't imagine the road traffic being so much of a problem in the 60s when the line was last open, but having known from a family member living in the area 5 years ago (and I don't imagine it's improved since), road traffic on both routes is now often congested for much of the day.

Unless someone's going to foot the bill for bridging over or tunnelling under these roads I can't see it happening.

Let me ask the obvious question of what level of bus services cover the said route and what is the loading levels of these. Is there a high car ownership level in the area under discussion ?

Were Wooburn Green and Loudwater the only two original railway stations between Bourne End and Wycombe ?

I believe car ownership is very high in this area and will be a substantial 'lobby group' against this move.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Indeed. A couple of years ago I suggested to Bucks CC that this line should be re-opened and the proposed EWR MK-Ayl-HW-Mbone service should be diverted to Maidenhead via this route instead of Mbone. That would give those towns a one - change route to Heathrow via the also proposed WRATH. BCC weren't interested at the time but it looks as though things have changed.

That's an extremely good idea. Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and High Wycombe do after all already have good services to London, so running the new EWR/Aylesbury route to London isn't going to be massively useful from a connectivity POV.

But using the southern end of that route to create a connection from from High Wycombe/Aylesbury/Princes Risborough to Maidenhead - and therefore to Slough/Heathrow Airport/Reading would be massively useful in terms of opening up new journey opportunities.

 

[cle]

Agreed. The Marylebone to MK service is a bit ridiculous for end to end, so if it could go somewhere else of use, then why not. Connections to Crossrail would open up a lot of potential journeys, and Maidenhead itself has a lot of employers.

Another option could be extending Crossrail to High Wycombe, but not useful for London journeys and overkill on capacity.

 

[davetheguard]

Bourne End to High Wycombe has always struck me as one of those utterly ridiculous railway closures that involve shutting down a short section of line, loose the passengers and advantage of a through route, and create a sort of railway cul-de-sac.

Similar closures included: Stratford upon Avon to Honeybourne, which greatly lengthened the potential journey time from London to this tourist honeypot; and the well known examples of Uckfield to Lewes and Colne to Skipton.

The so-called savings of not having to maintain and staff these short sections of track must have been negligible, surely? Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it looks bonkers, quite bonkers......

 

[infobleep]

Pathetic.

If they can compulsory purchase houses for HS2, buying gardens shouldn't be a problem.

The fact the gardens extended and are legal, suggests the local councils didn't keep checks on such things.

However we now have high quality aerial photography and computers to help us keep track of things. Less so in the 1970s, when people might have extended their gardens, hoping to avoid detection for 12 years.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[infobleep]

A cursory look at a satellite view suggests that it's not simply gardens, but a couple of residential streets and a small retail/industrial estate that have been built on the formation. Given the topography a new formation could well be cheaper once you'd paid all the lawyers, compulsory purchased, compensated, demolished and made good the old formation.

I'd imagine if this was reopened it would involve the branch being electrified, and probably tied in with Chiltern electrification as well, which must be quite far down the list.

In terms of medium term plans though it sounds like one of the more sensible suggestions for reopening.

If the route was safe guarded, how can industrial estates and streets be on top of it? Or is their a technical meaning for safe guarding which doesn't conform to the more common view that it isn't built a upon.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[JamesRowden]

Let me ask the obvious question of what level of bus services cover the said route and what is the loading levels of these. Is there a high car ownership level in the area under discussion ?

Were Wooburn Green and Loudwater the only two original railway stations between Bourne End and Wycombe ?

Arriva the Shires & Essex operate the number 37 High Wycombe - Bourne End - Maidenhead. There is a Monday-Friday service level of 3 buses per hour between High Wycombe and Bourne End with 1 bus per hour continuing through to Maidenhead.

 

[The Planner]

I have no doubt that all the land owners will claim adverse possession as they extended their gardens and no one has told them in the last 12 years to get lost.

 

[mr_jrt]

I did always think that if you were going to rebuild the route (given it would be new build for all intents and purposes) then the logical second step would be to link Henley and Marlow (as was the intention when the branches were conceived) and run a service to Reading rather than Maidenhead - after all, the main value of Maidenhead over Reading is being closer to London, and odds are passengers north of Bourne End would just travel to High Wycombe for London, those already at Bourne End would use a shuttle to Maidenhead as currently, and those south would just travel to Twyford or Reading. Reading would have far more useful interchange options, IMHO.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Bourne End to High Wycombe has always struck me as one of those utterly ridiculous railway closures that involve shutting down a short section of line, loose the passengers and advantage of a through route, and create a sort of railway cul-de-sac.

Similar closures included: Stratford upon Avon to Honeybourne, which greatly lengthened the potential journey time from London to this tourist honeypot; and the well known examples of Uckfield to Lewes and Colne to Skipton.

The so-called savings of not having to maintain and staff these short sections of track must have been negligible, surely? Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it looks bonkers, quite bonkers......

I'd throw the Steyning Line into that.

 

[NickBucks]

Non starter. Apart from the fact that houses have been built on the route ( and this area needs more affordable housing than transport links with no proven financial benefit)) there would be no advantage.From High Wycombe at least it would be quicker to go via Chiltern to Marylebone / Bakerloo to Paddington and then HEX/ Cross rail to Heathrow. Going west would involve a change at Reading. Local amenity groups have been pushing this for years ( I should know as I was the Hon Treasurer of one for years). There object was to get traffic off the roads which meant re-instating all the stations stops enroute that existed prior to closure. A non stop- Wycombe to Bourne End would not achieve this and a stopper provide no time saving. The aim was to get a light rail option with a Parry People Mover I believe. People in this area love their cars- hence the poor bus services and will not migrate easily. I think Bucks County Council have agreed to the review to shut people up as much as anything by proving it would not be financially viable.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The poster above really says it all, sadly.

Also, I'd imagine Marlow-based commuters would be concerned about what would happen to their services as a result of the line re-opening from Bourne End to High Wycombe. Would it become a simple out-and-back shuttle? Would through services remain but head to Wycombe for Marylebone instead?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When discussions on a car v. train discussion ensue where travel to work is involved, the following should be brought into the discussion:-
1)...The car will be used from the home directly to the place of employment. The train requires travel to a railway station then from a railway station to the place of employment.
2)...Many car drivers have company cars that are needed to perform their employment duties. Taxation can be levied upon such drivers.

 

[moggie]

non starter. The aim was to get a light rail option with a parry people mover i believe.

They gonna be sitting on the roof with one of them. :P

 

[MarkyT]

I did always think that if you were going to rebuild the route (given it would be new build for all intents and purposes) then the logical second step would be to link Henley and Marlow (as was the intention when the branches were conceived) and run a service to Reading rather than Maidenhead

I can't see a Marlow to Henley rail link ever being possible. The riverside environment around there is just too sensitive for such major development and local residents are rich and influential. The best that can be hoped for is to improve other services at both Marlow and Henley. Henley could become an extension of Crossrail, with the Maidenhead terminators being extended there. The Henley branch station platforms could all be extended fairly easily, and there should be space on this former double track line to install a passing loop if required, or probably more usefully, a second platform for more robust turn-backs at Henley.

The Bourne End - High Wycombe link could perhaps be more easily be reinstated on a new alignment as shown here:

http://www.townend.me/files/bourne-end.pdf

. . . this proposal reuses the first 1 km beyond Bourne End, but then diverges onto a new alignment for approximately 4km, joining the Chiltern Main Line between Beaconsfield and High Wycombe, near Loudwater.

The new route could be used by local trains, an extension of the existing Maidenhead – Bourne End branch shuttle to High Wycombe, or could become part of a longer and more useful service between Milton Keynes, with its range of North Western and Midlands connections, and Heathrow Airport.

With the addition of an extra junction leg, the Marlow Chord facing London, there is an opportunity to introduce a new through London service for Marlow, an alternative terminal for an expanded stopping services from Marylebone, say 2 out of 4 trains per hour each going to High Wycombe and Marlow.

 

[The Planner]

That would cost a fortune....