Great Missenden railway station

Great Missenden railway station serves the large village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, as well as the villages of Prestwood, Little Hampden and Little Missenden. The station lies on the London Marylebone-Aylesbury line and is served by Chiltern Railways trains. It is situated between Amersham and Wendover stations.

Both station platforms have step-free access.

History
The station first opened on 1 September 1892, by the Metropolitan Railway (MetR), when the railway was extended from Chalfont Road to Aylesbury Town. The Great Central Railway served the station from 1899, connecting the station to Leicester, Nottingham, and Sheffield.

However, when the Metropolitan Line (the successor of the MetR) was fully electrified in the late 1950s early 1960s, a decision was made to run only as far as Amersham; one stop short of Great Missenden. This meant that Great Missenden is now only served by Mainline services. In 1966, due to the Beeching Axe, the line north of Aylesbury was closed and the station is now only served by local commuter services. Services were run by British Rail (BR) until privatisation in 1996, when Chiltern Railways took over the franchise.

During the modernisation of the Met in the 1950s, the down (Aylesbury) platform buildings were demolished. In 1989/90, the station was refurbished by BR's Network SouthEast and during this time, the up (London) platform canopy was shortened slightly.

A Metropolitan Railway signalbox is still extant on the south end of the down platform. It ended service in 1984.

It has been known that many Prime Ministers have used the line to travel to the station so they can reside at their weekend residence, Chequers.

Services
At peak times, there are up to 4 trains per hour towards London in the morning, and returning from London (towards Aylesbury) in the evening. Some of these are express services, which skip the stops shared with the Metropolitan Line nearer to London.

Journeys to Marylebone take approximately 45 minutes (35 minutes for express trains). Journeys to Aylesbury take approximately 15 minutes.

The normal service pattern is as follows:
 * 2 tph to Aylesbury
 * 2 tph to London Marylebone

Onward Connections
Buses operate from the station to High Wycombe and an infrequent service to Chesham (twice per week), run by Arriva Shires & Essex.

Trivia

 * The station is used in television or film from time to time, as its typical South-East English decor and easily removable name signs mean it can be adapted without too much difficulty.
 * An advert for the BBC's 'Great Britons' TV programme showed Mo Mowlam standing beneath the name sign asking "Why is Great Missenden Great?"