Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line
Encyclopedia
The Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line was a railway
branch line
constructed by the Buckinghamshire Railway
which connected the Oxfordshire
market town
of Banbury
with the Buckinghamshire
town of Bletchley via the historic county town
of Buckingham
and the Northamptonshire
town of Brackley
, a distance of 21.25 miles (34.2 km).
The line was promoted by the Buckinghamshire Railway
which was formed in 1847 to construct two routes: one from Bletchley to Oxford
, later known as the Varsity Line
, and another to Banbury. The line to Banbury was opened in May 1850 and the Oxford section followed in October of the same year. The line was worked by the London and North Western Railway
, which absorbed the Buckinghamshire Railway in 1879. In 1923, the London and North Western became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
at the Grouping
. The line became part of British Railways upon nationalisation
on 1 January 1948. Increasing competition from motor transport and dwindling receipts after the Second World War led to the line being chosen in 1956 for an experiment with British Rail Derby Lightweight
diesel multiple unit
s in an attempt to stem the losses. Although the units were well-patronised, the deficit was not reduced sufficiently to justify keeping the line open. The section between Banbury and Buckingham closed on 2 January 1961, with the section Buckingham-Verney Jn abandoned on 5 December 1966. None of the station buildings have survived, although some sections of the line are now public footpaths.
was formed in 1847 to construct a line from to , with a branch to from Bletchley. The scheme was designed to foil the Great Western Railway
's (GWR) attempts to reach Birmingham
. The Buckinghamshire Railway was backed by the London and North Western Railway
(LNWR) which provided £450,000 (£ as of ) towards costs. Construction began in July 1847, but financial difficulties meant that the single-track line from Bletchley to Banbury was only completed three years later on 30 March 1850; it opened to passengers on 1 May that year. Goods and coal traffic was accepted from 15 May 1850. The line to Oxford did not open throughout until 20 May 1851 and was later known as the Varsity Line
.
The line's northern terminus at Merton Street
in Banbury
was a modest structure to the east of the GWR's own station. Originally intended as a temporary building, the station's timber construction gave the arriving passenger the feeling of arriving at a frontier and would not have been out of place on the Union Pacific Railroad
. Intermediate stations were provided at , and . Services ran straight through to until 1868 when was opened to create an interchange with the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
.
carried coaches for Banbury, although in some years the service terminated at Brackley. One or two services generally ran on Sundays, but these were not usually part of an Oxford service. From 1905, four services were running from Bletchley to Banbury, with one additional train terminating at Brackley. By 1920, an additional Brackley service had been laid on. Between 1901 and 1916 a through service from operated, which slipped a coach
at Bletchley in the down direction. This practice was restored after the 1923 grouping
, though initially the coach slipped only ran as far as Buckingham.
Farthinghoe became a junction station on 1 June 1872 with the opening of the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway, which joined the branch at Cockley Brake and allowed connections to , and Stratford
. The 5.5 miles (8.9 km) section from Banbury to Cockley Brake was to become the busiest part of the line. New stations opened at in March 1878 and in August 1879.
Passenger traffic was relatively light and peaked just before the First World War, although the LNWR tried to develop with specials and excursion train
s. In 1889, a special service ran to from Buckingham upon the death of the third Duke of Buckingham
for mourners to attend the funeral at . Another was operated in 1894 upon the death of the Comte de Paris who had rented Stowe House
. Stowe House was later to bring new traffic to the line when it became Stowe School
in 1923 and special trains brought the boys to and from the school. In the same year, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
upon the railway grouping
.
was also carried from Wroxton
via the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway
and the GWR's Banbury station
; coal and building materials were also transported.
through the town, with the result that it failed to attract early development and was overtaken by Aylesbury
. Neither Buckingham nor Brackley benefited significantly from the railway, and population levels of both remained less than 2,500. Banbury by contrast did expand, but was better served by the GWR's main line
from 1852.
Passenger receipts were never high after 1923 and the coming of the motor vehicle had made serious inroads into traffic between the two wars, which was halted by the Second World War. The end of the war saw the railways nationalised
and the line becoming part of the London Midland Region of British Railways. With the end of fuel rationing, passenger numbers began to decline again and the line's future was called into question from the mid-1950s after the ASLEF strike of 1955 when much of the milk traffic was lost. Sunday passenger services were withdrawn in the late 1940s and by now only four trains in each direction ran on weekdays. The first threat to the line came in 1952 when BR, having closed the line from Cockley Brake to Towcester from 2 July 1951, reduced services to three trains each way. The demise of the Towcester line resulted in the closure of Farthinghoe on 3 November 1952. By this time, the line was hanging by a thread, with a reported £14,000 annual deficit (£ as of ) and monthly receipts of no more than £50.
In 1956, the branch was chosen for a pilot single-car diesel multiple unit
scheme as part of the Modernisation Plan. Two experimental olive green British Rail Derby Lightweight
units nos. M79900 and M79901 entered service on 13 August and operated a service between Banbury and Buckingham, connecting with a steam push-pull
service to Bletchley. Eighteen months after their introduction, the need to change at Buckingham was eliminated when the units ran straight through to Bletchley. Two new halts were opened at Radclive
and Water Stratford
and Merton Street received a facelift. The units, which had a seating capacity of 52 (M79900) and 61 (M79901), resulted in a reported traffic increase of 400%. Such was their popularity that both were operated in tandem on Banbury market days (Thursdays) and Saturdays. In 1958-59, seven up trains and eight down ran on weekdays, with two extra evening services each way on Saturdays. The journey time to Verney Junction was 41 minutes, with a further 17 minutes to Bletchley.
In 1959, British Railways announced that although the units were well-patronised at peak times, they tended to be empty during other periods. There was demand for the service from Buckingham, Fulwell and Westbury and Brackley, and almost none at Banbury where some people thought that the line had already closed. The units had increased passenger receipts by £250-£300 per month and reduced operating costs by £300, but this still resulted in an annual deficit of £4,700 (£ as of ).
which was to provide a replacement bus service. The agreement reached would see two buses a day ply the route: one at 07.25 and the other at 15.31.
The last service between Banbury and Buckingham ran on 31 December 1960, with official closure of the section coming on 2 January 1961. Goods facilities were withdrawn from 2 December 1963 and passenger services on the truncated Buckingham branch continued until 7 September 1964.. The line to Buckingham was visited by the Queen on 4 April, when the Royal Train
was stabled overnight at Padbury. Her father
had previously visited Brackley station in May 1950 en route to the first British Grand Prix
at Silverstone
.. The freight service to Buckingham was withdrawn on 5 December 1966 and the line was abandoned. Track lifting was undertaken in 1967.
The railway alignment to the west, south and east of the site formerly ran through a shallow cutting which was used as a landfill site in the 1970s and is now part of Farthinghoe Nature Reserve. Just beyond the site to the north, a stone five-arch viaduct has survived. Brackley station was abandoned after closure and after damage by vandals, it was demolished in the 1970s. St. James Road now occupies the site which is surrounded by a light industrial estate and residential housing. Some of the trackbed to the south-east is taken into Pocket Farm Walk before the route is severed by the A43 Brackley Bypass
. At Fulwell and Westbury, the ruins of the main station buildings can be seen. The stationhouse is in residential use after having been restored from a derelict state. The station buildings at Buckingham were also demolished after closure and the site taken over by the Countryside Services of Buckinghamshire County Council
; the site, including degraded platform remains, was returned to nature and a footpath now runs as far as the location of the goods shed. Padbury station was demolished in 1968 and houses were built on the site in 1975. The line through Verney Junction was mothballed in 1993, leaving the stationmaster's house as a private residence and the platform edges in an overgrown state.
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
constructed by the Buckinghamshire Railway
Buckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
which connected the Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
with the Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
town of Bletchley via the historic county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...
of Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
and the Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
town of Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
, a distance of 21.25 miles (34.2 km).
The line was promoted by the Buckinghamshire Railway
Buckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
which was formed in 1847 to construct two routes: one from Bletchley to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, later known as the Varsity Line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...
, and another to Banbury. The line to Banbury was opened in May 1850 and the Oxford section followed in October of the same year. The line was worked by the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
, which absorbed the Buckinghamshire Railway in 1879. In 1923, the London and North Western became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
at the Grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
. The line became part of British Railways upon nationalisation
Transport Act 1947
The Transport Act 1947 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation...
on 1 January 1948. Increasing competition from motor transport and dwindling receipts after the Second World War led to the line being chosen in 1956 for an experiment with British Rail Derby Lightweight
British Rail Derby Lightweight
The British Rail Derby Lightweight diesel multiple units, were the first such trains to be built en-masse for British Railways. The units were built at BR's Derby Works from 1954 to 1955. The units were built in various formations, including 12 power-twin 2-car units, 84 power-trailer 2-car units,...
diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
s in an attempt to stem the losses. Although the units were well-patronised, the deficit was not reduced sufficiently to justify keeping the line open. The section between Banbury and Buckingham closed on 2 January 1961, with the section Buckingham-Verney Jn abandoned on 5 December 1966. None of the station buildings have survived, although some sections of the line are now public footpaths.
Authorisation and opening
The Buckinghamshire RailwayBuckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
was formed in 1847 to construct a line from to , with a branch to from Bletchley. The scheme was designed to foil the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
's (GWR) attempts to reach Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. The Buckinghamshire Railway was backed by the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
(LNWR) which provided £450,000 (£ as of ) towards costs. Construction began in July 1847, but financial difficulties meant that the single-track line from Bletchley to Banbury was only completed three years later on 30 March 1850; it opened to passengers on 1 May that year. Goods and coal traffic was accepted from 15 May 1850. The line to Oxford did not open throughout until 20 May 1851 and was later known as the Varsity Line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...
.
The line's northern terminus at Merton Street
Banbury Merton Street railway station
Banbury Merton Street was the first railway station to serve the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury in England. It opened in 1850 as the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway providing connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closing for passengers in 1961 and goods in 1966.- Context...
in Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
was a modest structure to the east of the GWR's own station. Originally intended as a temporary building, the station's timber construction gave the arriving passenger the feeling of arriving at a frontier and would not have been out of place on the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
. Intermediate stations were provided at , and . Services ran straight through to until 1868 when was opened to create an interchange with the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...
.
Passenger traffic
The original service provided four up and down trains, all worked by the LNWR, which had leased the line for 999 years from 1 July 1851, finally absorbing it in 1879. Most services from Bletchley to OxfordOxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station was a railway station serving the city of Oxford, England, located immediately to the north of what is now Frideswide Square on the site of the Saïd Business School. It was the terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway, which was worked, and later absorbed, by the...
carried coaches for Banbury, although in some years the service terminated at Brackley. One or two services generally ran on Sundays, but these were not usually part of an Oxford service. From 1905, four services were running from Bletchley to Banbury, with one additional train terminating at Brackley. By 1920, an additional Brackley service had been laid on. Between 1901 and 1916 a through service from operated, which slipped a coach
Slip coach
A slip coach or slip carriage is a British and Irish railway term for passenger rolling stock that is uncoupled from an express train while the train is in motion, then slowed by a guard in the coach using a hand brake, bringing it to a stop at the next station. The coach was thus said to be...
at Bletchley in the down direction. This practice was restored after the 1923 grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
, though initially the coach slipped only ran as far as Buckingham.
Farthinghoe became a junction station on 1 June 1872 with the opening of the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway, which joined the branch at Cockley Brake and allowed connections to , and Stratford
Stratford-upon-Avon (SMJ) railway station
Stratford-upon-Avon Old Town railway station was one of two railway stations that served the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England...
. The 5.5 miles (8.9 km) section from Banbury to Cockley Brake was to become the busiest part of the line. New stations opened at in March 1878 and in August 1879.
Passenger traffic was relatively light and peaked just before the First World War, although the LNWR tried to develop with specials and excursion train
Excursion train
An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose.Examples of excursion trains:* A train to a major sporting event* A train run for railfans or tourism...
s. In 1889, a special service ran to from Buckingham upon the death of the third Duke of Buckingham
Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC , styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century...
for mourners to attend the funeral at . Another was operated in 1894 upon the death of the Comte de Paris who had rented Stowe House
Stowe House
Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
. Stowe House was later to bring new traffic to the line when it became Stowe School
Stowe School
Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...
in 1923 and special trains brought the boys to and from the school. In the same year, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
upon the railway grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
.
Goods traffic
Freight consisted mainly of agricultural produce, milk and cattle for Banbury where there was a market next to Merton Street station. IronstoneIronstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
was also carried from Wroxton
Wroxton
Wroxton is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire about west of Banbury.-History:Wroxton is recorded as having a church in 1217, but the present Church of England parish church of All Saints is early 14th century. A Perpendicular Gothic clerestory and porch were added early in the...
via the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway
Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway
The Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway was a standard gauge mineral railway that served an ironstone quarry near the village of Wroxton in Oxfordshire.-The line's History:...
and the GWR's Banbury station
Banbury railway station
Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is currently operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.-History:...
; coal and building materials were also transported.
Decline
The single-track branch line from Banbury to Verney Junction possessed none of the strategic advantages of the east-west link between Oxford and Cambridge and even though efforts were made to save it, closure was inevitable. The line's principal objective was Buckingham, which had declined steeply since a disastrous fire in 1725 and the collapse of the wool trade. The first Duke of Buckingham altered the course of Buckingham's history when he opposed the proposed route of the London and Birmingham RailwayLondon and Birmingham Railway
The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....
through the town, with the result that it failed to attract early development and was overtaken by Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
. Neither Buckingham nor Brackley benefited significantly from the railway, and population levels of both remained less than 2,500. Banbury by contrast did expand, but was better served by the GWR's main line
Chiltern Main Line
The Chiltern Main Line is an inter-urban, regional and commuter railway, part of the British railway system. It links London and Birmingham on a 112-mile route via the towns of High Wycombe, Banbury, and Leamington Spa...
from 1852.
Passenger receipts were never high after 1923 and the coming of the motor vehicle had made serious inroads into traffic between the two wars, which was halted by the Second World War. The end of the war saw the railways nationalised
Transport Act 1947
The Transport Act 1947 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation...
and the line becoming part of the London Midland Region of British Railways. With the end of fuel rationing, passenger numbers began to decline again and the line's future was called into question from the mid-1950s after the ASLEF strike of 1955 when much of the milk traffic was lost. Sunday passenger services were withdrawn in the late 1940s and by now only four trains in each direction ran on weekdays. The first threat to the line came in 1952 when BR, having closed the line from Cockley Brake to Towcester from 2 July 1951, reduced services to three trains each way. The demise of the Towcester line resulted in the closure of Farthinghoe on 3 November 1952. By this time, the line was hanging by a thread, with a reported £14,000 annual deficit (£ as of ) and monthly receipts of no more than £50.
DMU experiment
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
scheme as part of the Modernisation Plan. Two experimental olive green British Rail Derby Lightweight
British Rail Derby Lightweight
The British Rail Derby Lightweight diesel multiple units, were the first such trains to be built en-masse for British Railways. The units were built at BR's Derby Works from 1954 to 1955. The units were built in various formations, including 12 power-twin 2-car units, 84 power-trailer 2-car units,...
units nos. M79900 and M79901 entered service on 13 August and operated a service between Banbury and Buckingham, connecting with a steam push-pull
Push-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
service to Bletchley. Eighteen months after their introduction, the need to change at Buckingham was eliminated when the units ran straight through to Bletchley. Two new halts were opened at Radclive
Radclive Halt railway station
Radclive Halt was a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line which served the village of Radclive in Buckinghamshire, England, from 1956 to 1961.- History :...
and Water Stratford
Water Stratford Halt railway station
Water Stratford Halt was a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line which served the village of Water Stratford in Buckinghamshire, England, from 1956 to 1961.- History :...
and Merton Street received a facelift. The units, which had a seating capacity of 52 (M79900) and 61 (M79901), resulted in a reported traffic increase of 400%. Such was their popularity that both were operated in tandem on Banbury market days (Thursdays) and Saturdays. In 1958-59, seven up trains and eight down ran on weekdays, with two extra evening services each way on Saturdays. The journey time to Verney Junction was 41 minutes, with a further 17 minutes to Bletchley.
In 1959, British Railways announced that although the units were well-patronised at peak times, they tended to be empty during other periods. There was demand for the service from Buckingham, Fulwell and Westbury and Brackley, and almost none at Banbury where some people thought that the line had already closed. The units had increased passenger receipts by £250-£300 per month and reduced operating costs by £300, but this still resulted in an annual deficit of £4,700 (£ as of ).
Closure
Closure notices were published in December 1959 with the final date of service given as 2 January 1960, but this was delayed due to failure to agree subsidy terms with Midland RedMidland Red
Midland Red was a bus company which operated in the English Midlands from 1905 to 1981. It was the trading name used by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company , which was renamed Midland Red Omnibus Company in 1974...
which was to provide a replacement bus service. The agreement reached would see two buses a day ply the route: one at 07.25 and the other at 15.31.
The last service between Banbury and Buckingham ran on 31 December 1960, with official closure of the section coming on 2 January 1961. Goods facilities were withdrawn from 2 December 1963 and passenger services on the truncated Buckingham branch continued until 7 September 1964.. The line to Buckingham was visited by the Queen on 4 April, when the Royal Train
British Royal Train
The Royal Train is a set of railway carriages dedicated for the use of the British Monarch, other members of the Royal Family, and their staff. The train enables members of the Royal Family to carry out busy schedules over an extended period, in a secure environment which minimises disruption and...
was stabled overnight at Padbury. Her father
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
had previously visited Brackley station in May 1950 en route to the first British Grand Prix
1950 British Grand Prix
The 1950 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 13 May 1950 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, England. It was the fifth British Grand Prix, and the third to be held at Silverstone after motor racing resumed after World War II. It was the first round of the 1950 World...
at Silverstone
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...
.. The freight service to Buckingham was withdrawn on 5 December 1966 and the line was abandoned. Track lifting was undertaken in 1967.
The line today
Merton Street was demolished after closure and the site used for road haulage and livestock marketing purposes, before being occupied by a company providing temporary buildings. It is now covered by a residential development. Farthinghoe housed a railwayman until 1963, after which it became derelict and was demolished. No trace remains of the station, the site of which was used as a municipal waste tip by Northamptonshire County Council from 1968, before being closed and reopened by a private company as a recycling and refuse centre; the site comprises a large concrete hangar and a single-storey office and toilet block.The railway alignment to the west, south and east of the site formerly ran through a shallow cutting which was used as a landfill site in the 1970s and is now part of Farthinghoe Nature Reserve. Just beyond the site to the north, a stone five-arch viaduct has survived. Brackley station was abandoned after closure and after damage by vandals, it was demolished in the 1970s. St. James Road now occupies the site which is surrounded by a light industrial estate and residential housing. Some of the trackbed to the south-east is taken into Pocket Farm Walk before the route is severed by the A43 Brackley Bypass
A43 road
The A43 is a primary route in the English Midlands, that runs from the M40 motorway near Ardley in Oxfordshire to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Through Northamptonshire it bypasses the towns of Northampton, Kettering and Corby which are the three principal destinations on the A43 route...
. At Fulwell and Westbury, the ruins of the main station buildings can be seen. The stationhouse is in residential use after having been restored from a derelict state. The station buildings at Buckingham were also demolished after closure and the site taken over by the Countryside Services of Buckinghamshire County Council
Buckinghamshire County Council
Buckinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom. Its area of control does not include Milton Keynes, which is a unitary authority...
; the site, including degraded platform remains, was returned to nature and a footpath now runs as far as the location of the goods shed. Padbury station was demolished in 1968 and houses were built on the site in 1975. The line through Verney Junction was mothballed in 1993, leaving the stationmaster's house as a private residence and the platform edges in an overgrown state.