On Mar 5, 3:53*pm, E27002 wrote:
On Mar 4, 5:48*pm, Charles Ellson wrote:



On Thu, 4 Mar 2010 08:18:28 -0800 (PST), E27002
wrote:

On Mar 4, 3:36 am, Jamie *Thompson wrote:
On Feb 26, 1:50 pm, Chafford wrote:

Following last month's announcement on Evergreen 3, Chiltern Chairman
Adrian Shooter is asking Modern Railways readers what Evergreen 4
should provide. Captain Deltic likes the idea of a 4 track 125mph
electrified railway but reckons that this will have to wait for
Evergreen 5 (and a potential franchise extension to 2026, according to
the article!)

Comments to Captain Deltic at:

How about Aylesbury to Banbury via Buckingham, restoring that
population centre to the rail network? Though I suspect Rugby would be
the better bet.

Aylesbury to Verney Junction would not be an easy re-opening. *The
line was not well built to begin with.

OTOH If you are talking about re-opening Aylesbury to Banbury as part
of a third route to Birmingham, I think that has real merits. *All of
Metroland would be given easy access to England's second city.

If Network Rail added a new curve towards Bletchley, Chlitern's trains
could reach Milton Keynes Central with all of the onward connections
that MKC has to offer.

There already is a curve at Claydon Junction pointing toward
Bletchley; the problem IIRC is the gaps in the track along the route.

Understood, indeed, I have photographed that very curve, along with
Calvert Station, albeit many years back.

The problem with the route by way of Claydon is that it only provides
a very indirect route to Milton Keynes. *There is no easy way of
connecting it to Banbury. *The route by way of Verney Junction, plus a
new curve, provides through routes to Banbury and Milton Keynes.

Having both gives the residents of Metroland living north of Harrow
great increased travel opportunities. *It also gives Chiltern an
alternative route to Birmingham.

In all fairness, Vernney Junction was, is, and probably always will be
a field, so building a *new* curve from the Oxford-Bedford line to the
route through Buckingham (running via Calvert) wouldn't exactly be
difficult. The line from Vernney Junction to Quainton road doesn't
appear to have anything but a few scattered dwellings anywhere near it
anyway. On a tangent...I do wonder why the Buckingham Railway Centre
never bothered trying to rebuild the line north so they'd have
somewhere to run their rolling stock. I would've imagined that running
between Buckingham and Quainton road would've been a good line length
to operate, with little operational railway concerns.