Banbury–Verney Junction branch line

[1] Onward routes from there ran to the West Coast Main Line at Bletchley via Brackley and Buckingham and thence to Cambridge, or to Aylesbury for London.

Increasing competition from motor transport and dwindling receipts after the Second World War led to the line being chosen in 1956 for an experiment with British Rail Derby Lightweight diesel multiple units in an attempt to stem the losses.

[7] The line's northern terminus at Merton Street in Banbury was a modest structure to the east of the GWR's own station.

Services ran straight through to Bletchley until 1868[11] when Verney Junction was opened to create an interchange with the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway.

[12] The original service provided four up and down trains, all worked by the LNWR, which had leased the line for 999 years from 1 July 1851, finally absorbing it in 1879.

Freight consisted mainly of agricultural produce, milk and cattle for Banbury where there was a market next to Merton Street station.

[21] The single-track branch line from Banbury to Verney Junction possessed none of the strategic advantages of the east–west link between Oxford and Cambridge and even though efforts were made to save it, closure was inevitable.

[17] The line's principal objective was Buckingham, which had declined steeply since a disastrous fire in 1725 and the collapse of the wool trade.

With the end of fuel rationing, passenger numbers began to decline again and the line's future was called into question from the mid-1950s after the ASLEF strike of 1955 when much of the milk traffic was lost.

[29] In 1956, the branch was chosen for a pilot single-car diesel multiple unit scheme as part of the Modernisation Plan.

There was demand for the service from Buckingham, Fulwell and Westbury and Brackley, and almost none at Banbury where some people thought that the line had already closed.

[35] The units had increased passenger receipts by £250-£300 per month and reduced operating costs by £300, but this still resulted in an annual deficit of £4,700 (equivalent to £140,000).

[23] Goods facilities were withdrawn from 2 December 1963 and passenger services on the truncated Buckingham branch continued until 7 September 1964.

[39] Her father had previously visited Brackley station in May 1950 en route to the first British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Merton Street was demolished after closure and the site used for road haulage and livestock marketing purposes,[41] before being occupied by a company providing temporary buildings.

[58] The line through Verney Junction was mothballed in 1993,[59] leaving the stationmaster's house as a private residence[60] and the platform edges in an overgrown state.

In January 2019, advocacy group the Campaign for Better Transport released a report in which they listed the line as Priority 2 for reopening.