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Chiltern Main LineThe Chiltern Main Line is a name for the railway line between London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill stations. There is also a secondary route from Marylebone to Aylesbury. The main towns served by the route, starting from London, are listed below. Birmingham Route Aylesbury Route Passenger services on the route are currently operated by Chiltern Railways. Some services between Birmingham Snow Hill and Leamington Spa are operated by Central Trains, whilst Virgin Trains run services over the line between Birmingham New Street and Coventry to Banbury as part of their cross-country services from Scotland and the north of England to the south coast of England. History The line was originally built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the 1850s, to connect Oxford to Birmingham and Wolverhampton. For many years, trains from Birmingham to London went the long way round via Oxford and then along the Great Western Main Line to London Paddington. In an attempt to compete with the LNWR's London-Birmingham route, a shortcut to London was constructed in the 1900s from Aynho Junction just south of Banbury to Princes Risborough via Bicester. This new line was constructed jointly by the GWR and the Great Central Railway (GCR). The new shortcut provided both a faster route between London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill stations for the GWR, and a diversionary route for the GCR that would allow it to avoid the route of the Metropolitan Railway. GWR and GCR trains would meet the joint line at Northolt Junction, near South Ruislip station, and part company at Ashendon Junction, with GCR trains turning north to head to Calvert, and GWR trains continuing northwest, via Bicester, to meet the original GWR route at Aynho Junction. In the 1960s, when the rival West Coast Main Line was electrified, express services from London to Birmingham on this route were discontinued as part of the Beeching Axe, and the Banbury to Princes Risborough line was single-tracked, and was for years only used by occasional local services to Banbury. Snow Hill station in Birmingham was also closed, along with the line to Wolverhampton. Services were resumed in the late 1980s, when Snow Hill station was re-opened, although instead of going to Paddington Station they went to Marylebone Station, using part of the old GCR route from Marylebone to Northolt Junction. Upon rail privatisation in the 1990s Chiltern Railways took over the route, and in the late 1990s, the Banbury-Princes Risborough line was re-doubled to allow for a much more frequent service. Part of the old Great Western route from Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton, is now used by the Midland Metro light rail system.
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