Varsity Line


The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway.
In World War II, the line became a strategic route for freight avoiding London, and additional connections were made to nearby lines to improve it, but it was not greatly used for its intended purpose. After the war, the line was again scheduled to be developed as a strategic route, but that scheme was never fully implemented either.
Passenger services were withdrawn from most of the line on 1 January 1968, and only the Bletchley–Bedford section remained open for passenger traffic.
In 1987, the section between Oxford and Bicester was reopened, followed in 2015 by a connection to the Chiltern Main Line at Bicester, enabling Chiltern Railways to operate an Oxford to London passenger service. There are funded plans for the entire line to be re-established by the late-2020s, partly on a new route and under a new name "East West Rail".

Early history

The Oxford to Cambridge line, when completed, ran broadly west to east. Although a continuous line from Oxford to Cambridge was proposed from time to time, it was actually built by local schemes.
From west to east, these were:
In time, these sections were all incorporated into the London and North Western Railway.
In the early days there were five intersecting trunk lines running south to north:
Two other trunk routes, the Great Western Railway's Bicester cut-off and the Great Central Railway main line, were built later.

Bedford Railway

The London and Birmingham Railway opened on 9 April 1838 as far north as Denbigh Hall, about a mile north of Bletchley. Initially, passengers alighted here to take a stagecoach on Watling Street to during construction work on the intervening section, which opened on 17 September 1838, and this temporary terminus was closed. Subsequently, and for a time, took over as an important stop on the line, as a point where engines were changed over and passengers rested.
In 1836, proposals were put forward to build a line from Cambridge to join the L&BR at Bletchley; the line would have passed through Bedford, but the scheme was not taken forward. The obvious enhancement to the prosperity of Aylesbury following that town's connection to the L&BR changed attitudes, and as time passed, Bedford business interests sought a connection to the main line railway. In 1844 George Stephenson visited Bedford to discuss the matter. At a meeting on 23 April 1844 he set out his proposed scheme, for a line to Bedford joining the L&BR main line at Bletchley. Some opinions had preferred Wolverton as the junction, since Bletchley was not then a settlement of any significance.
A prospectus for the Bedford and London & Birmingham Railway was prepared; the capital was to be £125,000.
On 16 July 1846 the London and Birmingham Railway amalgamated with others, and formed the London and North Western Railway. A proposed extension of the Bedford line on to Cambridge through Hitchin was submitted to Parliament in the 1846 session but failed standing orders.
The line to Bedford opened on 17 November 1846, when a ceremonial opening took 600 persons from Bedford to Bletchley in a special train. The new line had a connection to the River Great Ouse at Bedford, trailing from the Bletchley direction. The Bedford station was not yet ready at the time of opening. The commercial benefit to Bedford, already well served by coastal water-borne commerce over the River Great Ouse, is indicated by the immediate fall of coal prices, from 1s 9d to 11d per cwt.
There were four passenger trains each way, Sunday excepted, but this was soon enhanced to five each way, one of which was limited-stop, and two Sunday trains.
Immediately on opening the Bedford Railway was absorbed into the London and North Western Railway. The terms were 4% per annum on the capital, plus half of any surplus. The LNWR had subscribed 1,522 of the 2,500 shares.

Buckinghamshire Railway

The Oxford and Bletchley Junction Railway and the Buckingham and Brackley Junction Railway had both been authorised in 1846, and before construction the two schemes were amalgamated to form the Buckinghamshire Railway, authorised by the Buckinghamshire Railway Act 1847 on 22 July 1847. The new company would form a Y shape from Bletchley to both Oxford and Banbury. The 1847 powers also included an extension to Banbury, connecting to the Oxford and Rugby Railway there, and a southward extension from Verney Junction to join the Aylesbury branch. The scheme was encouraged by the London and North Western Railway, which wished to block northward encroachment from the Great Western Railway, whose area of influence at the time was further south.
The junction that became Verney Junction was known at first as Claydon Junction; the name Verney Junction was given to the station that was later established there. When the World War II link from the Great Central Railway main line was made, the junction there was called Claydon LNE Junction to emphasise the distinction.
Following authorisation of the Buckinghamshire Railway Company, the directors determined on 10 November 1847 to press ahead with the Banbury line in preference to the Oxford line. Work started on the last day of 1847. The line opened from Bletchley to Banbury on 1 May 1850 for passenger traffic, and goods trains started on 15 May 1850.
Opening of the Oxford line followed relatively swiftly: to Islip on 1 October 1850; on to Oxford Road on 2 December 1850. This station was at the crossing of the present-day A4165 road, and therefore near to the modern Oxford Parkway station. Horse omnibuses and carts connected the station with Oxford itself. The line was extended to the company's own station at Oxford on 20 May 1851. It was a single track west of Claydon Junction.
The 1853 passenger timetable shows 4 trains each way daily except Sundays, the first trains each way divided and joined Buckingham portions at Winslow. The journey time Oxford to Bletchley was 75 minutes and a typical journey Oxford to London took about 2 hours 45 minutes.
The company had its own station at Oxford. It was fortunate in finding a site: Rewley Abbey had long since fallen into ruins, and the site was made available. Approaching trains crossed a swing bridge over the Sheepwash Channel to reach it. The junction with Oxford and Rugby Railway at Banbury was not made by the company, and the southwards extension from Verney was abandoned for the time being.
The LNWR provided more than half the capital and worked the line from the beginning, and leased it for 999 years from 1 July 1851 guaranteeing a 4% dividend to the other shareholders. The LNWR absorbed the Buckinghamshire Railway Company on 21 July 1879.
Early in 1854 the line from Verney Junction to Oxford was doubled, completing double track along the full length of the line. Verney was a junction, but no station was built until 1868, prompted by the construction of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway.

Wolverhampton to London via Bletchley

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was authorised by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Act 1845 as a broad gauge line on 4 August 1845. Its line was to be 89 miles in length, connecting to the Great Western Railway at Wolvercot Junction, just north of Oxford. The cost of the line was heavy, and the estimates fell considerably short, so that the company was constantly short of funds during the construction period. For some time it concentrated its resources on the northern part of the authorised line.
Although the OW&WR had originally been expected to be an ally of the GWR, the friendly relations cooled, and the London and North Western Railway developed good relations with the OW&WR. The LNWR tried to negotiate a takeover of the OW&WR, but this was rejected in Parliament; and in 1852 a direct connection between the LNWR Bletchley line and the OW&WR was also thrown out. In 1853 however the proposed connection was approved, and on 4 June 1853 the OW&WR had opened its line as far as Wolvercot Junction, its southern extremity.
The Yarnton Spur was a short double-track line, in length, from Oxford Road Junction to Yarnton, and it was opened on 1 April 1854. The LNWR at once started operating through passenger services between Euston and Wolverhampton, via Bletchley, Yarnton Spur and the OW&WR. The trains were worked by the LNWR as far as Hanborough, and also from Dudley to Wolverhampton LNWR station via the South Staffordshire curve at Tipton.
The Buckinghamshire Railway connection at Bletchley left in a southward direction, and a west to south chord was brought into use there in October 1854 to permit direct running between Euston and the Buckinghamshire line.
A west to south curve to the Yarnton Spur was opened, allowing direct access from the OW&WR line to the LNWR Oxford station; this was used chiefly for goods traffic, but in the autumn of 1857 local passenger trains used it during a period of exceptionally strained relations between the OW&WR and the GWR.
The service to London over the LNWR ceased by 1 September 1861; the west to south curve at Yarnton was reduced to a through siding only shortly afterwards, and the west to south curve at Bletchley was closed and lifted in 1864. Nevertheless, the goods and mineral traffic from the OW&WR line remained considerable; Lawrence, writing in 1910, said that, "In March last, no fewer than 7,500 coal trucks made use of the loop."