Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway

Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway
The Manchester to Marylebone express at Neasden Junction
Overview
Termini	Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, England Verney Junction, Buckinghamshire, England
History
Opened	2 April 1896 (1896-04-02)
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map v t e Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway To Baker Street and Marylebone Harrow-on-the-Hill North Harrow Pinner Northwood Hills Northwood Moor Park Watford Curve Croxley Watford Rickmansworth Chorleywood Chalfont & Latimer Chesham Amersham Great Missenden Wendover Stoke Mandeville Wycombe Railway Aylesbury Waddesdon Quainton Road Brill Tramway Former Great Central Main Line Waddesdon Road Westcott Wotton Wood Siding Brill Granborough Road Winslow Road Verney Junction

The Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway was a joint railway company that controlled a line extending from Harrow on the Hill in what is now north-western Greater London to Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, England.^[1] Owned by the Metropolitan Railway and the Great Central Railway, the railway was nationalised in 1948.

History

Overview of the line from Harrow-on-the-Hill and to Verney Junction, also showing the Great Western and Great Central Joint Line

On 2 April 1906, the same day that the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway (GWGCJR) was opened, the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway (MGCJR) was created.^[2] This took over the lines of the Metropolitan Railway north and west of Harrow South Junction, with the exception of the branch to Uxbridge. These comprised the main line between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Verney Junction and the branches from Chalfont & Latimer to Chesham and from Quainton Road to Brill.^[3] The MGCJR was created under the terms of the Metropolitan & Great Central Railway Act, which received Royal Assent on 4 August 1905.^[4]

Management of the joint line was to be in alternate periods of five years by the two co-owners, the first five-year term being that of the Metropolitan.^[4] After establishment of the MGCJR, new stations were opened at Sandy Lodge in 1910, and at North Harrow in 1915.^[5] Aylesbury station was leased jointly to the MGCJR and the GWGCJR from 1907.^[5]

The branch to Watford from Rickmansworth was authorised under an Act of Parliament obtained by the Metropolitan on 7 August 1912, but was a MGCJR project. Purchase of land began in 1914, but the First World War held up further progress, and the first contract for construction was not placed until December 1922.^[4]

At the start of 1923, the GCR was a constituent of the newly created London and North Eastern Railway; and on 1 July 1933, the Metropolitan was a constituent of the London Passenger Transport Board. Through both these changes of ownership, the MGCJR retained its title, and was listed in the Transport Act 1947, which nationalised the British railways, as one of the "bodies whose undertakings are transferred to the [British Transport] Commission".^[6]

In 1993, British Rail (now Chiltern Railways) services calling at Moor Park ceased.

Legacy

The route north of Aylesbury was closed to passenger trains in September 1966.^[7] The railway line and stations are used today by Transport for London's Metropolitan line as far as Amersham, and Chiltern Railways provides a service from Marylebone as far as Aylesbury Vale Parkway station, opened on 15 December 2008, north of Aylesbury, about a four-minute journey.

Notes

1. Reed 1997, p. ^{[page needed]}.
2. Dow 1965, pp. 99–100.
3. Dow 1965, p. 187.
4. Dow 1965, p. 188.
5. Dow 1965, p. 193.
6. "Transport Act 1947", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1947 c. 49, retrieved 2 January 2025
7. Horne 2003, p. 85.

References

• Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900-1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0263-0.
• Horne, Mike (2003). The Metropolitan Line. Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-275-5.
• Reed, Albin J. (1997). The Met & GC Line An Observer's Notes, 1948-1968. Avon Books.