Verney Junction railway station

Verney Junction
Station site in 1983, stationmaster's house to the right
Location
Place	Verney Junction
Area	Aylesbury Vale
Coordinates	51°56′26″N 0°55′48″W / 51.9406°N 0.9300°W / 51.9406; -0.9300Coordinates: 51°56′26″N 0°55′48″W / 51.9406°N 0.9300°W / 51.9406; -0.9300
Grid reference	SP736274
Operations
Original company	Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, Buckinghamshire Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway/Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway/Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway (1923–1947) Eastern Region of British Railways (1948–1962) London Midland Region of British Railways (1962–1968)
Platforms	3
History
23 September 1868	Opened
6 July 1936	Metropolitan passenger services withdrawn
6 January 1964	Closed to goods
1 January 1968	Closed to passengers
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Verney Junction was an isolated station at a four-way railway junction in Buckinghamshire, open from 1868 to 1968; a junction existed through the site without a station from 1851.

The first line to open on the site was the Buckinghamshire Railway, which opened a line from Bletchley to Banbury in 1850; a line branching west to Oxford followed in 1851. This formed an east-west link from Oxford to Bletchley and Cambridge passing through Verney Junction and this, known as the Varsity line, became the busiest line through the site, leaving the line to Banbury as a relatively quiet branch. The station opened in 1868 concurrently with the opening of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (later owned by London Underground) towards Aylesbury and London. Soon after the Buckinghamshire Railway became absorbed into the London and North Western Railway.

The lines south to Aylesbury closed to passengers in 1936 and the line to Buckingham in 1964, but the station remained open until the Oxford-Cambridge line closed to passengers in 1968. The track was singled and then mothballed, but a disused track has remained through the station site. The line between Oxford and Bletchley is to be reopened by 2019, but because of its isolated location Verney Junction will not be reopened.

While never very busy, Verney Junction was a local interchange point for a century from which excursions as far as Ramsgate could be booked. Situated 50 miles (80 km) from Baker Street, the station is one of London's disused Underground stations and, although it never carried heavy traffic, the Aylesbury line was important in the expansion of the Metropolitan Railway into what became Metro-land.

Verney Junction opened in 1868 as northern terminus of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway's (A&BR) single track from Aylesbury. The station was at a junction with the Buckinghamshire Railway's Bletchley to Oxford line, which was leased and operated by the LNWR before it acquired the route altogether in 1878. The station was built 1.75 miles (2.8 km) east of Steeple Claydon, and constructed to a rudimentary design at the cost of the A&BR, whose progress the LNWR viewed with disfavour.