Varsity Line

The Varsity Line (or Oxford to Cambridge 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. A pun on the railway term main line was sometimes employed by describing the line as the "Brain Line".

Services were withdrawn from the Oxford - Bletchley section and the Bedford - Cambridge section at the end of 1967, even though the line had not been listed for closure as part of the Beeching Axe in 1963.

The only sections still in regular passenger use today are the Oxford to Bicester Line from Oxford to Bicester Town, and the Marston Vale Line operation from Bletchley to Bedford. The Bicester - Calvert section still carries freight traffic but the Calvert - Bletchley section, though still extant, is currently disused. There are well-developed plans to open a short section from Bicester Town to the Chiltern Main Line as part of Project Evergreen 3 and from Bicester to Bedford as part of the East West Rail Link.

In the absence of a through rail service, Stagecoach East's X5 coach service provides a passenger service by road between Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes and Bedford.

Historic route
The line was built in stages, the first being that between Bletchley and Bedford which opened in 1846. The Buckinghamshire Railway opened the section between Bletchley and Verney Junction on 30 March 1850 as part of its line to Banbury. The Buckinghamshire Railway then opened the section between Verney Junction and Oxford on 20 May 1851. The L&NWR worked the Buckinghamshire Railway on a 999 year lease from 1 July 1851, and absorbed the company on 21 July 1879. The Bedford and Cambridge Railway opened in 1862. The L&NWR took it over in 1865 but did not use it to operate a through service between Oxford and Cambridge. Instead it operated separate Bletchley - Oxford and Bletchley - Cambridge services.

During the Second World War, the line carried many trains to and from the Bicester Military Railway. A junction between the line and the Great Central Main Line was built between Calvert and Claydon.

An attempt to close the line in 1959 failed due to large local opposition. The line was not listed for closure in Richard Beeching's 1963 report "The Reshaping of British Railways", but came under pressure from the road lobby and Minister of Transport Ernest Marples, who had appointed Dr Beeching. Patronage of the line fell when the introduction of fast trains from London to Oxford and Cambridge made it quicker for passengers to go via London. At the end of 1967 British Railways withdrew passenger services from the Oxford - Bletchley section and all trains from the Bedford - Cambridge section, a year after it had withdrawn passenger services north of Aylesbury on the Great Central Main Line.

In the 1980s the line between Aylesbury and Bletchley via Calvert was used for transfers of empty passenger rolling stock due to the closure of the London Marylebone depot, thus transferring the maintenance of the Chiltern Lines' Class 115s to Bletchley. This ceased with the opening of a new depot in Aylesbury and the introduction of the Class 165. During 1982 the entire length of the Bletchley-Oxford section, which was still double-tracked throughout, was used for diversionary passenger services while a bridge at Hill Wooton, between Coventry and Leamington Spa was replaced; all Birmingham-London Paddington services scheduled to stop at Coventry being diverted via this route for three days. Also in the 1980s, there were passenger specials to Milton Keynes from Marylebone via Aylesbury and High Wycombe, which picked up passengers at disused Winslow. The last passenger train to operate on this section of the line was the Mothball Tour in 1993, just before the line was taken out of use.

Network SouthEast, supported by Oxfordshire County Council, reopened the Oxford - Bicester Town section to passenger traffic in 1987, and reopened Islip railway station in 1989.

Present status of route


Between Oxford and Bicester the line is open and in regular passenger and freight use (see Oxford to Bicester Line) but limited to 25-40 mph. Since 1951 passenger trains have operated from the former Great Western Railway Oxford station. Between Bicester and Swanbourne the track is in place but overgrown. Within this the stretch between Bicester and Claydon Junction is used for regular freight trains carrying refuse to the landfill site at Calvert. Between Swanbourne and Mursley the track has been lifted but the trackbed remains and reinstatement is technically feasible. Between Mursley and Newton Longville the track is in place but overgrown. The stretch between Newton Longville and Bletchley was re-laid in spring 2006 and opened on 27 March 2006 for freight traffic, carrying refuse to the Newton Longville landfill site. Between Bletchley and Bedford the track is open and in daily passenger use as the Marston Vale Line.

Between Bedford and Cambridge all of the track has been removed and some sections of the trackbed have been lost. At Sandy and Potton new housing occupies the former route. Between Lord's Bridge and Cambridge, the Ryle Telescope of Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory now occupies a 3 mi length of the former route. Between Trumpington Park and Ride and Cambridge Station the entire route is being converted to be part of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway.

A further problem is the lack of through platforms at Bletchley and Bedford. The current track layout at Bletchley means that, without the proposed new high-level station, through trains would have to go around the station without stopping. Similarly, Bedford St Johns station was rebuilt on a different site, and is no longer on the through alignment towards Sandy.

Confirmed plans
In May 2006 the Department of Transport announced specific plans for Bletchley station. The document states that "it is likely" that Bletchley area renewals and network simplification will take place by 2010, "to include a high-level platform" for Bedford trains. The network will be suitable for the later addition of any 'East-West' link to and from Oxford and for the operation of through links from either Oxford or Bedford to and from Milton Keynes.

In the expansion plans for Milton Keynes, the area around Newton Longville is to be extensively developed. A new passenger station for Newton Longville is included in the "MK2031" strategic plan, with a spur to a new platform at Milton Keynes Central. An upgraded line is already in place (see above) and a simple halt would not be expensive.

On 4 December 2006, work began at Milton Keynes Central to prepare for a service connection from the Marston Vale Line, with completion scheduled for December 2008.

Chiltern Railways has opened a new station, known as Aylesbury Vale Parkway, 3 mi north-west of Aylesbury town station, adjacent to the A41 and the major development at Berryfields. The station opened on 14 December 2008, and the station building on 1 June 2009. Existing track, previously only used by freight trains, has been upgraded and new signalling equipment installed. This line could be extended further north to reach a rebuilt Oxford-Bletchley line at Verney Junction and Chiltern Railways has long-term aspirations to reach Milton Keynes.

It has also been announced that the line between Oxford and Bicester Town railway station will be upgraded with funding from property developers as a condition of enlarging Bicester Village Shopping Centre.

In March 2008, a £2 million engineering survey into the state of the existing and removed track was launched.

Prognosis
Hopes for a revival of the Varsity Line rested on the proposed East West Rail Link. As well as upgrading the track between Bicester and Bletchley, this scheme was aiming to construct a new 9 mi trackbed between Bedford and Sandy on roughly the same alignment as the original. At Sandy, trains would then have joined the East Coast Main Line to Biggleswade - Arlesey - Hitchin and then switched north-east to Letchworth - Baldock - Ashwell and Morden - Royston - Meldreth - Shepreth - Foxton - Cambridge. However, a chord would have to be built to enable southbound trains from Sandy to get onto the Hitchin - Cambridge branch, as the existing junction serves only northbound trains from London on to this branch. This would mean that trains would not actually stop at Hitchin and a new station might have to be built there unless another solution could be found.

However little progress was made with the project and development plans were further dashed when, in 2001, the Strategic Rail Authority rejected the option to reopen the stretch of line between Bicester and Bletchley. Then, in April 2006, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister declared itself to be in favour of the principle of re-opening the link between Bedford and Oxford but gave no indication of underwriting that opinion. Most recently, in March 2008, a £2 million engineering survey of the existing and removed tracks was launched.



An alternative alignment for the line eastwards from Sandy has been proposed in order that East Coast Main Line line capacity is not affected by the new line. This would continue from Sandy to the east along the original line, skirting Sandy Warren, before heading directly east with stations at Wrestlingworth and Bassingbourn before joining the existing railway network again at Foxton.

Despite growth opportunities for the rapidly developing Oxford-Cambridge Arc, reopening of the complete Varsity Line remains uncertain. The problem of reconstructing the Bedford to Sandy route is a particular obstacle. However, hope remains that the line between Bletchley and Bicester may re-open to provide a train service between Milton Keynes Central and Oxford.

In summer 2006 it was announced that, in a bid to co-host the 2012 London Olympics, a large rowing lake would be built near the former station site at Willington in Bedfordshire, in return for a licence to extract gravel. The lake would cut through the route of the trackbed between Bedford and Sandy and any subsequent bridging costs would seem to be prohibitive, especially given the uninterrupted span that would be required to avoid obstructing the lake.

In March 2007, a study (funded by the councils and other interested parties along the route) declared at p. 38, 5.1 ''A very good operating and business case exists for [a "base case" for a] two-trains-per-hour passenger service between Oxford and Milton Keynes, and an operating case also exists for the Aylesbury spur which would bring further economic and strategic advantages to the subregion. Capital cost for the base case is between £100m - £135m. The base case and the Aylesbury options should be further considered in the next phase of work.''

In January 2009 work began on clearing vegetation from the Bletchley-Claydon section of the line, to make way for a survey of the cost of reopening the line. The work is being progressed by Milton Keynes Partnership, with the intention of resuming passenger services between Oxford and Bedford via Milton Keynes Central "in three or four years".

In March 2008, those undertaking the engineering survey stated that a 100 mph link between Oxford and Bletchley could be achieved for around £190 million. Assuming construction was to start in 2009 as they then hoped, the upgraded / re-opened line could be in service by 2012.

In April 2008, the Department for Transport responded to an e-petition for support by reiterating that they would encourage private funding. .



Future stations

 * Water Eaton Parkway - opening 2013
 * Newton Longville - proposed
 * Weston Otmoor - proposed