BUCKS RAILWAY CENTRE TO ‘BREAK OUT’ OF QUAINTON?
Construction of High Speed 2 is “an opportunity, not a threat,” says chairman.
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre could achieve its dream of a longer running line - if its ambitions can dovetail with the building of two new railways. A proposal has been put forward to re-lay part of the first line to reach Quainton Road in 1868 - the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway (A&BR), which later became part of the Metropolitan Railway route to Verney Junction. Its last passenger train ran on July 4 1936, but the line was retained for wartime goods traffic, and finally closed in 1967. Approximately 1½ miles could be rebuilt as far as Shipton Lee Crossing, where a road overbridge has been filled in - allowing the Quainton Railway Society (QRS) to break free of the site that it has occupied since 1969, and more than doubling the length of its current ¾-mile running line. Whether it will come to fruition hinges on the outcome of discussions with Network Rail, on access rights to lay a new single track across the station road forecourt. NR leases the forecourt, together with Quainton Road’s platforms and station building, to the society. It is also dependent upon negotiations with two new main lines that are set to be built through Quainton Road, East West Rail (EWR) and High Speed 2 (HS2). EWR, the consortium planning to reopen the line from Oxford to Bletchley and Cambridge, is also to bring the former Great Central main line through Quainton Road back into passenger use, providing a double-track spur to Aylesbury. The section between there and Calvert was singled and relegated to freight-only status after the GC closed in 1966. HS2, which received Royal Assent on February 23, will pass within feet of the BRC’s Down side yard, over land owned by the QRS and used for overflow car parking, before joining the former GC alignment, with EWR running in parallel to the junction with the Oxford-Bletchley line at Calvert. The QRS already owns a crucial section of the A&BR trackbed, between the current Station Road overbridge and Snake Lane Bridge (see map), although further sections would need to be acquired, and some negotiations have taken place with HS2 Ltd. But aspirations to extend are dependent upon the design of a new bridge to carry a realigned Station Road, explains QRS Chairman Ben Jackson: “As it stands, it has double-track portals for EWR and HS2, but hasn’t made provision for us.” An appeal was made to the House of Lords Select Committee on HS2 on October 26 2016 but, says Trustee Lance Adlam: “We were turned down on the grounds that they couldn’t justify the additional public expense, as we didn’t have track laid at present to link our site with Snake Lane. “But there was a ‘chink of light’ that if we received permission from Network Rail for our extended line, over the perimeter of our neighbouring farmer’s land, then HS2 could review the decision. “EWR and HS2 haven’t closed the door on us; we have a very good relationship with both, and discussions are continuing.” “It would be a big step,” said Mr Jackson, “but it would be very popular with members. “Until HS2 and EWR are a bit more concrete, it’s very much a case of ‘watch this space’ - but it’s something we’ve longed to do.” Ironically, the new Station Road bridge is the result of a previous issue that arose from the HS2 scheme in 2012. Under the original plans, the Down side yard would have been left with no road access, making it impossible to move locomotives or stock in or out of this part of the site (SR403). Agreement was reached to realign the road layout which required the new bridge. But the society sees the arrival of EWR and HS2 as “an opportunity, not a threat,” Mr Jackson commented. “It’s all a number of years in the making, but it’ll give us a unique selling point as the only place where you can see HS2 and modern diesel units alongside Victorian steam.”
IT WOULD BE A BIG STEP, BUT IT WOULD BE VERY POPULAR WITH MEMBERS BEN JACKSON