The Croxley Rail Link, or the Metropolitan Line Extension, is a proposed
railway engineering
Railway engineering is a multi-faceted engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction and operation of all types of rail transport systems. It encompasses a wide range of engineering disciplines, including civil engineering, compu ...
project in the
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
and
Three Rivers districts of
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, England, that would have connected the
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
and the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
's
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
at . If the link were to go ahead, the Metropolitan line's terminus at
Watford Underground station would be closed and the line diverted and extended from
Croxley to Watford Junction via a reopened section of closed line. The main proponent of the scheme has been
Hertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...
but it failed to win the support of
Transport for London (TfL) which owns the Watford branch.
[ see section 6.3.6] The engineering works would have consisted of the realignment of the disused
Watford and Rickmansworth Railway
The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway (W&RR) ran services between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. The company was incorporated in 1860; the line opened in 1862. The Rickmansworth branch was closed in 1952, and the remaining l ...
's line between and , with the construction of a viaduct over the
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...
,
River Gade
The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watfo ...
and
A412 road
The A412 is a road in England between Slough and Watford. It was the main artery for this corridor and used to continue to St Albans prior to the construction of the M25. It provides interchange to the A4 in Slough, the A40/ M40 at the Denh ...
and two new stations before branching into the London Overground line near and continuing to .
The proposed route was featured in a Transport for London network map for 2016
and the Transport for London Indicative 2025 Transport Map on which Watford tube station does not appear.
Were the link to be built, direct services between Watford Junction and would be possible but were not included in the business case for the scheme.
The project was approved by the government on 14 December 2011
and vegetation clearance started during 2013.
The project received final government approval through an order under the
Transport and Works Act
The Transport and Works Act 1992 (TWA) was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to provide a system by which the construction of rail transport, tramway, inland waterway and harbour infrastructure could proceed in the UK by orde ...
on 24 July 2013
and was signed off and formally given the green light by the government on 17 March 2015 when it was confirmed that Transport for London would be responsible.
Work on the extension stopped in 2016 due to anticipated cost overruns and an unresolved dispute over funding. London mayor
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
announced in 2018 that there was no funding for the project.
History
![1927 Met line extension to Watford Central](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/1927_Met_line_extension_to_Watford_Central.png)
The present-day London Underground
Watford station is situated close to
Cassiobury Park
Cassiobury Park is the principal public park in Watford, Hertfordshire, in England. It was created in 1909 from the purchase by Watford Borough Council of part of the estate of the Earls of Essex around Cassiobury House which was subsequently ...
and somewhat peripheral to the town centre. Watford
Urban District Council
In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...
objected to the proposal to drive a railway across the park, resulting in the terminus of the Watford branch being a mile (1.6 km.) from the
High Street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
.
Also in the area was the single-track
Watford and Rickmansworth Railway
The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway (W&RR) ran services between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. The company was incorporated in 1860; the line opened in 1862. The Rickmansworth branch was closed in 1952, and the remaining l ...
that opened in 1862 between and . British Rail withdrew passenger services from the Rickmansworth branch in 1952 and ran a skeleton service on the Croxley Green branch until 1996.
Over the years, various schemes were considered to extend the Metropolitan line into the centre of Watford, including an abandoned plan in 1927 to open a Metropolitan Railway station on the High Street, .
In 1948, the
London Transport Executive
The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in Greater London, England between 1948 and 1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of ...
(LTE), part of the
British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...
, considered a proposal to link the Metropolitan line to the BR Croxley Green branch line.
[Horne, p.96] A similar proposal was put forward by
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operatio ...
(LRT) around 1994.
Because the line lay entirely within Hertfordshire, it was championed by the county council who lobbied for funding from LRT (later TfL) and the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
for 16 years.
Funding
In 2005
Transport for London (TfL) tentatively committed to providing up to £18 million of the estimated cost of £65 million, predicting that the link would be operational by 2010.
Difficulties arose in securing the remaining funding from the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
(DfT) and a revised project submission, under new guidelines, was prepared, with a view to obtaining Programme Entry status. A business case was submitted to the DfT in February 2008, with revised costs of £95 million.
The proposal was rejected in March on the basis that no guarantee of financial backing had been received from TfL.
In July 2008 the
East of England Regional Assembly
The East of England Regional Assembly was the regional chamber for the East of England region of the England. It was based at Flempton, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. The assembly was created as a ''voluntary regional chamber'' in 1998 by the ...
declared the scheme a "priority" and agreed to contribute £119.5 million
towards the estimated cost, now £150 million.
Hertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...
(HCC) agreed to allocate £25.8 million which it hoped to recover through ticket sales and other London Underground revenue.
It was predicted that the link could be operational within seven years.
A revised business case was produced in autumn 2009 and the costs and scope reviewed. Following the
Cameron–Clegg coalition
The Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg when Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new administration, following the resignation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, after the gene ...
's
Comprehensive Spending Review
A spending review, or occasionally a comprehensive spending review, is a governmental process in the United Kingdom carried out by HM Treasury to set firm expenditure limits and, through public service agreements, define the key improvements that t ...
the project was placed in the pre-qualification pool and a further submission made to the Department for Transport in January 2011. In February 2011 the Department for Transport placed the project into a qualification pool of works that would be subjected to further assessments in order to bid for funding. A Best and Final Funding Bid was submitted to the Department in September 2011.
On 14 December 2011, the Department for Transport agreed to fund £76.2 million of the £115.9 million cost,
with the remainder from the local authorities (£33.7 million) and third parties (£6.86 million).
In December 2014, Hertfordshire County Council announced that the projected cost of the scheme would rise to £230 million. It was also reported that London Underground could take over construction of the link from Network Rail.
According to TfL, HCC had significantly underestimated the costs and the project was faced with "significant project slippage and cost escalation", and for this reason, an agreement was reached with the DfT and HCC whereby London Underground would assume full responsibility for the project, subject to a suitable funding package. Hertfordshire County Council would now contribute £230 million, £34 million would be provided by central government, and LU was to contribute £16 million.
On 25 January 2017, the ''Watford Observer'' newspaper confirmed that work which had been ongoing since 2014 had stopped as there was an ongoing funding issue; Transport for London were stating that more than £50 million additional funding was required. A Freedom of Information request revealed that £130 million of the £284 million funding had already been spent, but the only works that had actually been delivered were some utility diversions and route clearance.
In September 2017,
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
, the
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
, gave more clarity to the issue, relieving Transport for London of any obligation imposed on it by the previous Mayor,
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, to fund a cost overrun. It was noted that at the budgeted cost of £284.4 million, the cost-benefit ratio of the project was only 0.4, so funding a cost overrun now estimated at £73.4 million on top of the £49.2 million Transport for London were already contributing, would not give value for money. It stated that Transport for London's sunk expenditure on the project was £71.2 million, of which £15.5 million was for buying an additional train, which has been delivered and put into service.
In 2018, the government offered Transport for London the £73.4 million additional funding it was apparently asking for, taking total funding available to £357.8 million, subject to Transport for London accepting cost overrun risk again. This arrangement was turned down by the Mayor. The parties were later reported to be examining cheaper alternative schemes such as a rapid bus transit scheme and light rail.
In late 2020,
Three Rivers District
Three Rivers is a local government district in southwest Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Rickmansworth.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Rickmansworth Urban District ...
Council announced that it was seeking to revive the link, citing it as a "shovel ready" project. Discussing the bid, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Croxley Green Peter Getkahn cited Boris Johnson's pledge to "build back better" after the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, mentioning that the extension to the Metropolitan line would be a suitable target for this.
Proposed route and stations
A key part of the project was the construction of a short section of track that would have connected the existing Metropolitan line to the former British Rail Croxley Green branch line at their closest point; this would have been achieved by a new junction near Baldwins Lane, about northeast of Croxley station and a viaduct and a bridge to carry the Metropolitan line over the
A412 Watford Road dual carriageway
A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
and the
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...
to the former BR line. Double track would have been laid along the disused trackbed, reinstating the line as far as Watford High Street.
None of the former BR stations that closed in 1996 would reopen. Two new stations were to be built:
Croxley Green station replaced by
(previously intended to be called "Ascot Road") and a second station, , would have replaced and the football specials halt, .
The new stations would have had ticket machines instead of staffed ticket offices.
Stations
The name ''Ascot Road'' was initially chosen by consultants for the first of the two new stations; however, many local people and councillors felt that this name would not reflect the identity of the area. Transport planners also expressed concern that the new Tube station may be too easily confused with
Ascot station in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
. The name ' was suggested due to historical connections with the area and because of a bridge over the
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...
, and after some consultation, it was confirmed in August 2013 that the ''Cassiobridge'' name would be used instead.
The proposed route of the line would have passed close to
Watford General Hospital
Watford General Hospital is a 521-bed acute District General Hospital situated on Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire. Together with Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital, it is operated by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust ...
, where a major business, retail and residential development has been planned. A station named ''Watford Hospital'' was planned to serve the development, but its name was changed to ''Watford Vicarage Road'' because it was felt that the association with
Vicarage Road football stadium would ensure wider recognition outside the local area.
Watford Met station
![Watford station building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Watford_station_building.JPG)
Transport for London had stated that passenger services on the Metropolitan line from Croxley to Watford would cease when the Croxley Rail Link opened; Watford station would close, although the short branch might remain in operation as a reversing siding. Following closure, the nearest new station to Watford Met would have been , about away. The plan to close the station had been the subject of some local opposition, and campaigners argued for a reduced shuttle service to be operated on the branch.
Ending services on part of the line and closing a station require a formal closure process involving
London TravelWatch
London TravelWatch is a statutory British consumer organisation that campaigns for improvements to transport in London. It deals with all complaints from passengers using any Transport for London modes including some cycling and pedestrian issu ...
.
The London TravelWatch Board set up a Watford Station Closure Panel; the panel held a public meeting in Watford on 14 June 2012 to present arguments to TfL against the station closure.
Amersham link
There was a further suggestion that with use of the existing, but seldom-used, Metropolitan line chord which allows trains to run from Watford towards via in conjunction with this rail link, direct services between Watford Junction and Amersham might have been possible some time in the future.
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operatio ...
's adapted internal planning Tube map of 1994 illustrated this idea.
The proposal was included in a
Greengauge 21
Greengauge 21 is a non-for-profit registered company that aims to investigate and develop the concepts associated with a UK high-speed rail network.
Research
Previous research into High Speed Rail (HSR) has tended to focus on the international ...
report "Capturing the Benefits of HS2 on Existing Lines"."
The report proposed that
High Speed Two would increase capacity on the
West Coast Mainline
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
, increasing the benefits of an "Amersham Link" to the Croxley Link. These benefits would be further increased by the planned substantial increase in service to Watford Junction and
London Euston
Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...
. It was claimed that this could support a new service from Aylesbury and other
London to Aylesbury Line
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
destinations to Watford Junction."
Alternative proposals
Following the cancellation of the London Underground extension scheme, Hertfordshire County Council, Watford Borough Council and Three Rivers District Council are evaluating alternative proposals to re-open the former Watford and Rickmansworth Railway line for public transport use, under the name of the Watford To Croxley Link (W2CL). The possible schemes include:
*A railway spur from Watford Junction terminating at Cassiobridge, to be operated as a shuttle service by London Overground Rail, with a possible junction at Bushey Arches to allow trains to run south to London Euston
*A new Metropolitan line spur branching off north of which would run along the route of the current
Ebury Way
The Ebury Way is a rail trail in Hertfordshire between Watford and Rickmansworth. The route crosses the Grand Union Canal and three rivers; the River Colne, the River Chess and the River Gade.
Passing lakes and fields in Rickmansworth, th ...
cycle path, joining the Watford DC line at Bushey Arches
*Converting the Abbey line to
light rail operation and extending it south of Watford Junction, running alongside the Watford DC line and branching off at Bushey Arches to run along a spur terminating at Cassiobridge
*Re-opening the WRR line as part of a wider
guided bus
Guided buses are buses capable of being steered by external means, usually on a dedicated track or roll way that excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of schedules even during rush hours. Unlike trolleybuses or rubber-tired tra ...
network as part of the proposed
Hertfordshire to Essex Rapid Transit (HERT) network.
The W2CL proposals are currently unfunded, and Hertfordshire County Council have invited competitive tenders for conceptual design submissions.
References
External links
*
*
Carto.Metro map of the Croxley Rail Link* - photos of the disused line
*
*
*
*
{{Watford
Transport in Watford
Rail transport in Hertfordshire
Proposed transport infrastructure in the East of England
Proposed extensions to the London Underground