Railways in Buckinghamshire
The county had its own pulling power in addition, as produce such as the Aylesbury duck could then be easily transported to the capital.
The railway system expanded enormously throughout the rest of the 19th century, but over-enthusiasm led to the construction of lines that made little, if any, profit.
[6] Construction of the L&BR began in November 1833 and the section from London Euston to Boxmoor in Hertfordshire opened in 1837.
The line to Bletchley was completed by the summer of 1838; from there passengers took a stagecoach shuttle from a temporary station called Denbigh Hall to Rugby where the railway continued north.
The section through Bucks had a third rail laid on 1 October 1861 allowing both standard and broad gauge trains to run.
[23] Two lines serving Windsor in Berkshire opened in 1849—both competing for traffic from the Royalty and tourists.
[25] For a brief period between 1883 and 1885, the District Railway ran services between London and Windsor & Eton Central via Ealing Broadway over the GWR tracks from Slough.
It opened in 1868 but trains never ran to Buckingham- even though Verney Junction had a connection to Banbury via Buckingham.
Known initially as the Wooton Tramway, it was built primarily for the use of the Third Duke of Buckingham and extended to Brill in 1872, terminating quite a distance from the village itself.
[34] The Metropolitan Railway was now stretching deep into Buckinghamshire, over land termed Metroland by the Met itself in 1915.
[35] The Metropolitan Railway (popularly called the 'Met') thus ran express services from central London to Verney Junction, in the middle of rural Buckinghamshire—a testament to this being that the terminus was so rural that the station was named after the local landowner, Sir Harry Verney.
[36] The Met's final extension in Buckinghamshire was over the Brill Tramway which was absorbed on 1 December 1899, almost fifty miles out of central London.
[38] The MS&LR had been a modest company, until Sir Edward Watkin became general manager in 1854.
Both companies were of use to Watkin as they provided a clear route between Dover and the already existing MS&LR near Nottingham.
[39] The London extension was planned to European standards and had virtually no sharp corners or steep inclines.
The line opened in 1906 and involved considerable improvements to the existing section of the GWR 'Wycombe Railway' between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough including double track throughout and a new tunnel.
The LMS took over the London and North Western Railway, serving the West Coast Main Line.
High unemployment after the First World War had caused the government to give money to county councils to improve the road network.
The cash inflow allowed a large increase in car ownership and road mileage.
At the end of the war in 1945, the new labour government realised that the private sector could no longer afford the railway system and so in 1947, the Transport Act 1947 was passed, which nationalised almost all forms of mass transit in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1948.
Almost all other surviving stations and branch and connecting lines in the north of the county were also closed to passengers.
In 2011 the government announced financial support for re-opening of Aylesbury and Oxford to Milton Keynes/Bedford services, with new stations at Winslow and perhaps Newton Longville, using parts of the former Varsity and Great Central lines.
Controversial proposals for High Speed 2, the new 230 mph high-speed line under the Chilterns and via the Great Central corridor, were announced by the Labour government in 2010, then enthusiastically taken up by the incoming Coalition despite strong opposition along parts of the route.
