Princes Risborough and Aston Rowant secured
The future is bright as Chinnor takes control of vital trackbed sections
AGREEMENTS HAVE been reached that will secure the future of the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway at both ends of its four-mile running line.
A 99-year lease on the bay platform at Princes Risborough, and the trackbed of the former Watlington branch between there and Thame Junction, was signed off by Network Rail and the CPRR at 4pm on March 1. Volunteers now have unrestricted access to the bay platform area seven days a week, and will be able to run more works trains to Princes Risborough; previously, a method of working had to be agreed with NR. It is hoped that the original Watlington bay platform can be restored and put back into service during the second half of the year, while track materials are being gathered for a run-round loop, funded by a £75,000 grant from the Department of Transport (SR455). While removing over 70 tons of rubble and detritus, accumulated on the site during its use as a ballast dump, volunteers discovered re-pointed brickwork on the platform, directly underneath the site of the gents’ toilets believed to be the result of a bufferstop collision. Next on the agenda will be the re-laying of half a mile of track on the Watlington branch formation to Thame Junction, allowing the CPRR to operate independently of NR metals. This must be carried out by 2021, when its agreement with the Office of Rail and Road, to run into Princes Risborough over the Thame branch, will expire. At the opposite end of the CPRR, a threat to the line’s Aston Rowant extension plans has been resolved, with agreement to protect the formation south of Chinnor station. Cemex, owner of the adjacent cement works, had given the railway notice to move its stock from this section before it was sold to a developer (SR461). But, says CPRR Chairman Danny Woodward: “We agreed that we would remove the stock and lift the track, in return for an assurance from Cemex that the trackbed would not be developed. “Under the 2011 Oxfordshire District Plan, the trackbed is protected.” Passenger numbers at the CPRR are on the rise, with a 27% increase in traffic during 2016 and a 28% rise in the ‘Santa Special’ figures alone - and further growth anticipated once the main line interchange at Princes Risborough is fully operational. “It’s going to be a big transition for us,” commented Mr Woodward.