The Anonymous Widower

Beeching Reversal – The Aston Rowant Extension Of The Chinnor Railway

This is one of the Beeching Reversal projects that the Government and Network Rail are proposing to reverse some of the Beeching cuts.

This Googlr Map shows the location of the proposed Aston Rowant station.

Note.

1. The motorway junction is Junction 6 of the M40, where it joins the B4009.
2. The hotel at the top of the map, which is marked by a pink arrow,  is the Mercure Thame Lambert.
3. A road passes the hotel and goes South East parallel to the motorway.

The original Aston Rowant station, appears to have been in the triangular piece of land to the East side of the road.

Wikipedia gives a plan for the future of the Aston Rowant station under a section called Future, where this is said.

There were reports in 1997 that the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway (CPRR) wished to extend its operations to Aston Rowant. A joint venture between the CPRR and Chiltern Railways was also proposed whereby the national rail operator would construct a new station at Aston Rowant to allow frequent weekday commuter services along the Icknield Line to connect with main line traffic through to London Marylebone, leaving the CPPR to run heritage services at other times. The scheme, which would cost around £3m, would seek to take advantage of Aston Rowant’s location near junction 6 of the busy M40 motorway.

There doesn’t seem to be any more details on the Internet, but I could see the full scheme having the following.

• A car-park by Junction 6 of the M40.
• Minimal station facilities.
• A shuttle train to Princes Risborough station using a diesel or battery Class 230 train or perhaps a heritage diesel.
• At weekends, it would act as parking for the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway.
• Given Adrian Shooter;s historic connections, this could be an ideal place for using Vivarail’s Pop-up Metro concept.

It could be a deal, where everyone’s a winner. Local commuters, Park-and-Ride users, the CPRR and Chiltern Railways could all benefit.

Conclusion

This is a simple scheme and I suspect the biggest problem could be getting the planning permission.

July 2, 2020 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Adrian Shooter, Aston Rowant Extension, Beeching Reversal, Beeching Reversal - Heritage Project, Chiltern Railways, Class 230 Train, Heritage Railways, New Stations, Vivarail Pop-Up Metro