The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway Company (WRR) was a short-lived company that ran services between Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

 and Rickmansworth

Rickmansworth

Rickmansworth is a town in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles west of Watford.The town has a population of around 15,000 people and lies on the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne, at the northern end of the Colne Valley regional park.Rickmansworth is a small town in...

 in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was incorporated in 1860 and the line actually opened in 1862.

Lord Ebury's railway

In July 1860 Lord Ebury

Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury

Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury PC , styled Lord Robert Grosvenor from 1831 to 1857, was a British courtier and Whig politician. He served as Comptroller of the Household between 1830 and 1834 and as Treasurer of the Household between 1846 and 1847...

 obtained powers to construct a 4.5 mile single track line between Watford and Rickmansworth which opened in October 1862. The Rickmansworth terminus

Rickmansworth (Church Street) station

Rickmansworth railway station was a London and North Western Railway station in the Rickmansworth area of west Hertfordshire...

 was located opposite the church to the south of the town where interchange sidings were provided with the nearby Grand Union Canal

Grand Union Canal

The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...

. The line had two other stations at Watford Junction and Watford High Street

Watford High Street railway station

Watford High Street railway station is a railway station in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It is served by the Watford DC Line on the London Overground network.-Location:...

 and its depot was situated on Wiggenhall Road in Watford. A further Parliamentary authorisation was obtained a year later to construct an extension from Rickmansworth to Uxbridge to connect with 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 Uxbridge branch

Uxbridge branch

The Uxbridge Branch Line was a railway line between West Drayton and Uxbridge. The line branched from the Great Western Main Line at West Drayton and ran two miles north to Uxbridge Vine Street.- History :...

, but this was never realised.

Despite hopes that the railway would bring further economic development to Rickmansworth and would serve the small factories and warehouses which had developed along the Grand Union Canal, it was Watford which actually grew at a faster pace and drew business from Rickmansworth. The construction of the railway was dogged with financial problems and a further Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1863 to authorise the issue of further shares to the value of £30,000 (£40,000 worth of shares had already been issued). The initial daily service consisted of five trains each way from Rickmansworth to Watford. The line was worked from the outset 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) who paid the WRR 50% of the gross earnings of the line.

The railway was never particularly financially successful and the Official Receiver

Official Receiver

An officer of the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, the Official Receiver is an officer of the court to which he is attached. The OR is therefore answerable to the courts for carrying out the courts' orders and for fulfilling his duties under law...

 was called in only four years after opening. Attempts had been made to remedy their financial problems by opening several freight branches, the most notable being to the Croxley printers and to the Grand Union Canal at Croxley Green

Croxley Green

Croxley Green is a small town and civil parish of approximately 5,000 dwellings and 12,000 residents located between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England...

. The company was eventually absorbed in 1881 by the burgeoning LNWR whose station it shared at Watford Junction.

Extension to Croxley Green

Anxious of the growing influence of the Metropolitan Railway

Metropolitan railway

Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...

 in north-west London, the LNWR added a short branch line to Croxley Green. Works commenced in 1908 and the new route opened in June 1912. The semi-rural location of the Croxley Green terminus

Croxley Green railway station

Croxley Green is a disused railway station near Watford, outside London, UK. It is located between Watford and the village of Croxley Green to the west of Watford, at the end of a short branch line.-History:...

 gave added credence to the LNWR's slogan "Live in the Country". The extension involved the construction of a substantial bridge over the Grand Union Canal. In March 1913 Croxley Green station was burned down by suffragettes.

Electrification and pre-war years

Electric services were introduced over the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway on 16 April 1917 worked by tube trains of the London Electric Railway (LER) running through from Queen's Park

Queen's Park station

Queen's Park station is a station served by London Underground and London Overground. It is in West Kilburn at the southern end of Salusbury Road, near the public park from which it takes its name...

 to Watford on weekdays only until a daily service was introduced in July 1919; this was done to cope with the voltage drop caused by the branch being supplied only from the Watford end. These services were supplemented by LNWR trains from Broad Street during peak periods and steam trains from Euston

Euston railway station

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...

. The Croxley Green branch was electrified on 30 October 1922, with Rickmansworth following in September 1927 as part of the LNWR's New Line Project

Watford DC Line

The Watford DC Line is a commuter railway line from London Euston to Watford Junction. Services on the line are operated by London Overground....

.

With the vesting of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway in 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...

 (LMSR) in 1923, the nine joint LNWR/LER electric tube cars became known as "watercress trains" due to the volume of watercress

Watercress

Watercresses are fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plants native from Europe to central Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by human beings...

 gathered in the Chess Valley that the trains often carried in their luggage compartments. The stock was finally withdrawn in 1939 with the introduction of emergency war timetables and replaced with main line size electric stock.

Rickmansworth branch

Notwithstanding the introduction of electric services, the Rickmansworth branch suffered in the face of the more direct services to London provided by the Metropolitan. Traffic was also eroded by the increased bus competition and private car ownership. Passenger services ceased in 1952 and most of the branch closed entirely in 1960 although track remained in place for a number of years afterward. A considerable length of the trackbed is now used by the Ebury Way Cycle Path.

Croxley Green branch

Although identified in the Beeching Report for closure, consent was refused and a peak service was run for many years. In 1988, an attempt was made to revive the fortunes of the Croxley Green branch by running a twice hourly daytime service; this was abandoned in 1990 and services were reduced to one 7.00am return working from Watford Junction on weekdays only. In 1996 a new road cut the route between Watford West

Watford West railway station

Watford West is a disused railway station in Watford, near London, United Kingdom. It is on the branch line from to , last operated by North London Railways, later renamed Silverlink.-History:...

 and Croxley Green and services were replaced by a bus, and then by an occasional taxi. The branch was formally closed in 2001.

Future

There are current proposals

Croxley Rail Link

The Croxley Rail Link is a railway engineering proposal to re-route part of a London Underground line in Hertfordshire, outside London, UK. The project would divert Metropolitan line Watford branch services after station away from station to via intermediate stations using a reopened section of...

 (with much discussion but so far little physical evidence of a practical end) to incorporate most of the Croxley Green branch into a diversion of the Watford

Watford tube station

Watford is a station at the end of the Watford branch of London Underground's Metropolitan Line in the north-western part of the network in Zone 7, previously zone A.-Location and description:...

 branch of the London Underground

London Underground

The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 (LU) Metropolitan Line

Metropolitan Line

The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...

 to Watford Junction station.

It was envisaged in 2005 that the link would be operational by 2010, but difficulties in securing funding caused the project to be postponed.