Aylesbury Vale Parkway railway station

Aylesbury Vale Parkway railway station is a railway station serving villages to the northwest of Aylesbury. It will also serve the Berryfields and Weedon Hill housing developments to the north of the town when these are completed. The station is served by Chiltern Railways and opened on December 14 2008. The station building opened on 1 June 2009.

Background
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced in April 2006 that it would be providing £8.17 million for track and signalling improvements to the existing line, which was only used to carry freight. The line is part of the old Metropolitan line/GCR which connected London and Aylesbury with the Midlands and North.

A further £2.8 million was be invested by Chiltern Railways' owners Laing Rail and £1m from Buckinghamshire County Council.

The station provides parking for 400 cars and links in to existing public transport bus services along the A41 corridor. A bus service from the station to several villages north of Aylesbury commenced on December 15 2008. This service, route 16 operated by Arriva, diverts via the station at times to meet London-bound commuter trains, and is free for holders of a Chiltern Railways season ticket of one month-or-longer length.

Construction began in October 2007 and the rail works were completed by Carillion Rail. The station was originally not due to be completed until 2010, however, it opened ahead of schedule. Between its opening and 31 May 2009, whilst the station buildings were under construction, tickets and facilities were available from portakabins.

Services
The off-peak service level is one hourly train to Marylebone via Amersham. During peak periods there are up to three trains per hour to Marylebone. The journey time to Aylesbury is about four minutes.

Future plans
There has been talk of extending the line by 2012 beyond the Parkway station to Quainton, Bletchley, Milton Keynes and Oxford using portions of the former Varsity Line. Whether or not this will happen is still unknown. The platform has been built to accommodate a second track if ever implemented, which would create an island platform.

The track between Aylesbury and the new station was upgraded to continuous welded rail with a maximum line speed for DMU passenger trains of 60 mph.