Princes Risborough station is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the
Chiltern Main Line
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull.
It is one of tw ...
that serves the town of
Princes Risborough
Princes Risborough () is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Aylesbury and north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end ...
in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is operated by
Chiltern Railways
Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains.
Chiltern Railw ...
.
History
At one period there were four different railway routes from the northern end of Princes Risborough station, although there has only ever been one to the south.
The first railway to reach Princes Risborough was the
Wycombe Railway
The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to .
History
The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846. The act ...
, which opened its extension from
High Wycombe
High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...
as far as on 1 August 1862.
[ Mitchell & Smith, April 2003, ''Historical Background''] There were three intermediate stations on this section: West Wycombe, Princes Risborough and . The cost of construction of the station building was £1104 9s 5d and additional general costs were £824 8s 0d. The station building as built was a typical Wycombe railway design with an open porch at the right hand end on the platform elevation, the design was the same as West Wycombe, Bledlow and Wheatley, and also on the original part of the Wycombe railway Cookham, Marlow Road, Wooburn Green and Loudwater. A branch of the Wycombe Railway was opened from Princes Risborough to on 1 October 1863.
The Wycombe Railway was worked by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
, and was absorbed by that railway in 1867.
The
Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway
The Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway was an independent English railway company that opened a line between the Oxfordshire towns of Watlington and Chinnor in 1872. The branch, which connected to the Great Western Railway (GWR) mainli ...
opened its line on 15 August 1872; that railway became part of the GWR on 1 January 1884.
The original station building was located a few hundred yards further north than the present site. The original building was extended at the north end to provide extra office accommodation between 1870 and 1880, and a curved roof canopy covering the platform may have also been added at the same time. Further additions to the building were made between 1894 and 1896.
A second platform was added when the Watlington branch was opened in 1872 although there was only a single track between the two platforms. In 1892 a new signal box was brought into use and a new passing loop, so the second platform was rebuilt with two tracks between them. A footbridge was also provided at this time.
The Great Western & Great Central Joint Committee was created with the dual objective of providing the
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
with a second route into London, bypassing the
Metropolitan Railway
The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
; and of providing the GWR with a shorter route to the Midlands. Central to this scheme was the upgrading of the existing GWR route between and Princes Risborough, which was transferred to the Joint Committee at its establishment on 1 August 1899. The line was extended in a north-westerly direction to Ashendon Junction, at which point the joint line ended, and a GCR route ran northwards to Grendon Underwood Junction, just south of ; both sections opened for goods on 20 November 1905, and for passengers on 2 April 1906.
[ Mitchell & Smith, Nov 2006, ''Historical Background''] Continuing in the same north-westerly direction from Ashendon Junction, the
Bicester cut-off
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham (Birmingham Moor Street railway station, Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill railway station, Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via Hi ...
line, which was purely GWR property, was opened for goods trains on 4 April 1910, and to passengers on 1 July 1910.
The branch closed to passengers on 1 July 1957, and the route to Oxford via Thame closed on 7 January 1963;
services over the GCR route ceased on 5 September 1966,
leaving the present network of two lines to the north, to and to Aylesbury.
The station was transferred from the
Western Region of British Rail
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...
to the
London Midland Region
The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...
on 24 March 1974.
Chiltern Railways considered reinstating the
Wycombe Railway
The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to .
History
The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846. The act ...
's Oxford extension via Thame, but instead constructed a chord at Bicester to permit services to run from the main line onto the westernmost section of the
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line (or the Oxford to Cambridge railway line) was the main railway route that once linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway.
During World War II the line was ...
, restored between Bicester and Oxford; this permitted a new service to Oxford which opened in 2015.
![Prr platform 3 at night](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Prr_platform_3_at_night.jpg)
Part of the Watlington branch line has been reopened by the
Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway
The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway with its headquarters and main station at Chinnor in South Oxfordshire, England. It runs along the foot of the Chilterns escarpment. Although a few fi ...
, which extended its
heritage railway
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
service to a new platform face at Princes Risborough station on the site of the former platform to Watlington, Platform 4; although the platform opened in August 2018, the platform as well as the Railway is still being maintained. Princes Risborough station currently has four platforms: Platform 1 for Aylesbury; Platform 2 from Aylesbury to London (via High Wycombe); Platform 3 for Bicester, Banbury, Oxford and Birmingham; and Platform 4 for the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Heritage Railway.
Originally, two through roads allowed non-stop running clear of the platform roads. Radical cuts on the Chiltern Main Line and
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railw ...
in the 1960s left the station with only two usable platforms - the current platforms 1 and 2. In 1998 to increase capacity on the line Chiltern Railways reinstated platform 3, the down platform, on top of the old down platform road, in a manner similar to that at
West Ruislip
West Ruislip is a station on Ickenham High Road on the borders of Ickenham and western Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon in Greater London, formerly in Middlesex. It is served by London Underground (LU) and National Rail trains on ind ...
. Fragments of the original down platform are still visible at the station. The 'up' through road, removed from service as part of previous drastic running-down of the route which left only two usable platforms, was restored in September 2011 as part of Chiltern's Evergreen 3 upgrade project.
Signal box
![Disused signalbox at Princes Risborough - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Disused_signalbox_at_Princes_Risborough_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1458673.jpg)
Built in 1904, Princes Risborough North Signal Box, located towards the northern end of Platform 3, is the largest surviving Great Western Railway signal box in the country. It closed in 1991 when modernisation of the line moved signalling operations to
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
and became a
Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
after a successful public campaign to save it from demolition.
The
Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association were granted an agreement with
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...
allowing them to maintain the box and undertake restoration work after a period of neglect left the box damaged by weather and vandals. Work had previously ceased in 1998 due to safety concerns but was resumed in 2013.
Services and operators
The Monday to Friday off-peak service consists of:
*2 trains per hour to
*1 train per hour to
*1 train per hour to (with some services continuing to )
There are also peak time and evening services to and three direct trains a day to .
Facilities
The ticket office is staffed for most of the day Monday to Friday and on Sundays. On Saturdays the ticket office is staffed from the morning until early afternoon.
There are two self-service ticket machines located just outside the station for use by passengers when the ticket office is closed or busy. There are also departure screens located on all three platforms and inside the waiting room.
The station has a waiting room, toilet facilities and step free access to all parts of the station: passengers reach platform 3 via lifts at either end of the footbridge. There is also a café.
Notes
References
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External links
{{coord, 51.718, N, 0.844, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Former Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway stations
Railway stations in Buckinghamshire
DfT Category D stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862
Railway stations served by Chiltern Railways
1862 establishments in England
Princes Risborough