The following settlements are served by the branch line: In July 1846, The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an Act of Parliament.

The act authorised the construction of a single line from the original Great Western Railway (GWR) station at Maidenhead, to High Wycombe.

The 2.75 miles (4.43 km) line opened on 27 June 1873, and Marlow Road was renamed Bourne End in 1874 to avoid confusion.

522 was rebuilt at Swindon Works in 1884 and similar Metro 2-4-0 class locomotives remained in service until 1935 when autotrains were introduced.

The service was gradually cut back through to 1969, by which time Marlow station had been demolished and replaced by a smaller one on the site of the former goods yard.

Finally, on 2 May 1970 the stretch of line from Bourne End to High Wycombe was closed to passengers after the Minister of Transport at the time refused to grant the British Railways Board £60,000 to keep the line open from Bourne End to High Wycombe.

The High Wycombe Society, a local conservation group, has campaigned for the reinstatement of the line as light rail, the feasibility of which was confirmed by an engineering survey of the route.

[6] In September 2008, Buckinghamshire County Council backed the proposal for reinstatement and called upon a private operator to finance the rebuilding work.

They claim that this, combined with the new link from Slough to Waterloo, would have a positive business case and greatly facility orbital rail connections west of London.

[10] The remainder of the line was confirmed for electrification in the Government's railway High Level Output Specification for Control Period 5 (April 2014 – March 2019).

[11] In January 2016, electrification of the branch was ruled out following delays to the core 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western Main Line.