High Wycombe railway station

High Wycombe
High Wycombe station in 2015
Location
Place	High Wycombe
Local authority	District of Wycombe
Grid reference	SU869930
Operations
Station code	HWY
Managed by	Chiltern Railways
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03	1.854 million
2004/05	1.934 million
2005/06	1.705 million
2006/07	1.927 million
2007/08	2.115 million
2008/09	2.198 million
2009/10	2.151 million
2010/11	2.106 million
2011/12	2.244 million
2012/13	2.473 million
2013/14	2.583 million
2014/15	2.750 million
History
Original company	Wycombe Railway
Pre-grouping	GW&GCJR
Post-grouping	GW&GCJR
1854	Terminus station opened
1864	Through station opened. Original terminus becomes a goods shed
1906	Through services along GW&GCJR begun
1970	Services to Bourne End withdrawn
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at High Wycombe from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

High Wycombe railway station is a railway station in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The station is on the Chiltern Main Line between Beaconsfield and Saunderton stations. It is served by Chiltern Railways.

History

The remains of the 1854 station

The original terminus station was built in 1854 after an original design by I.K. Brunel.

The station had one platform and a train shed that covered two broad gauge tracks, on one side of the train shed was a single road engine shed and to the platform side a booking office and waiting rooms (on the Birdcage Walk side) . The walls of the train shed, an engine shed and offices were constructed from brick and knapped flint with slate roofs. This building remained as a station in use until 1864 when it became a goods shed. Between the 1880s and 1940 various additions were made to the fabric of the old station. The building received grade two listing in 1999 due to being one of only six remaining GWR train sheds. Since listing most of the later additions were removed restoring the building to its original footprint, the only addition is the flat roof second floor extension added in 1940.

The dimensions and general design of the train shed, engine shed and office accommodation was repeated at Thame with only the building materials different, Wycombe being built with brick and knapped flint wall while Thame was timber.

A second through station was opened on the current location in 1864 with a second platform and later a footbridge. For two years prior to this date, after the extension to Thame had been made, all through trains had to reverse in and out of the old station which was not located on the new through lines. The design of the office accommodation on the second station was a copy of the office accommodation on the first, with a canopy covering the platform rather than the train shed. The building was extended as least once at its west end.

With the building of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway in 1906 the station was again rebuilt to the design that is in use today with four lines between two staggered platforms and a subway.

The station was originally the terminus of the Wycombe Railway line from Maidenhead, which was later extended to Aylesbury and Oxford, and then in 1867 was taken over by the Great Western Railway.

In 1906 the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway line was opened through High Wycombe, linking London with the two companies' lines to the north. Much of the current Chiltern Main Line is formed from this joint line.

British Rail closed the original branch line to Maidenhead on 2 May 1970 and subsequently the track was lifted.^[1]

The station was transferred from the Western Region of British Rail to the London Midland Region on 24 March 1974.^[2]

In November 2005 a fire in the ticket office gutted the roof of the building.^[3] The restored station building reopened in September 2007.^[4]

Ticket barriers are in operation at this station.

Services

A Class 168 going to London calls at High Wycombe as a northbound service approaches

All trains are operated by Chiltern Railways. The current off-peak services are:^[5]

• 5 trains per hour to London Marylebone, of which:
  • 2 are non-stop to London Marylebone
  • 1 semi-fast calling at Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross.
  • 2 semi-fast calling at Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross as well as other intermediate stations, one of which originates at High Wycombe.
• 1 train per hour semi-fast service to Birmingham Snow Hill.
• 1 train per hour to Aylesbury.
• 1 train per hour to Banbury.
• 1 train per hour to Oxford Parkway calling at Bicester Village.

High Wycombe has a bay platform, Platform 1, from which additional peak-hour local services run to and from London Marylebone. Services to Oxford Parkway are due to be extended into Oxford city centre in spring 2016.^[6]

Future

High Wycombe is to gain further rails links north of Aylesbury to Winslow and Milton Keynes by 2019 as part of the East West Rail Link.^[7]

References

1. "The Post-Beeching Era". Local History. Marlow — Maidenhead Passengers' Association.
2. Slater, J.N., ed. (May 1974). "Notes and News: Transfer of Marylebone-Banbury services". Railway Magazine (London: IPC Transport Press Ltd) 120 (877): 248. ISSN 0033-8923.
3. "Station blaze disrupts journeys". BBC. 27 November 2005.
4. "High Wycombe station restored after fire". Chiltern Railways. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011.
5. http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/download-our-timetable
6. http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/news/just-100-days-until-chiltern-railways-opens-new-rail-link-between-oxfordshire-and-london
7. http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/train-services/

External links

• Chiltern Railways
• Chiltern Railways Evergreen 3 - Proposed services to Oxford.
• Drawings of how the station looked when built

Coordinates: 51°37′48″N 0°44′42″W / 51.630°N 0.745°W