page_title: Chiltern Main Line
section_title: Heyday, decline and rationalisation
hierarchical_section_title: Chiltern Main Line / History / Heyday, decline and rationalisation
caption_attribution_description: English: Diesel-hauled express west of Seer Green station. View eastward, towards London Paddington; ex-GWR Paddington - Birmingham main line. The 14.10 Paddington - Birkenhead express now has Type 4 'Western' 2,700hp C-C Diesel-hydraulic No. D1005 'Western Venturer' - brand-new from Swindon.
context_page_description: The Chiltern Main Line is an inter-urban, regional and commuter railway, part of the British railway system. It links London and Birmingham, the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a 112-mile route via High Wycombe, Banbury, and Leamington Spa.
  It is one of two main line railway routes between London and Birmingham, the other being the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Birmingham New Street, which is the principal InterCity route between the two cities.
  The name Chiltern Line was invented as a marketing name for the line by Network SouthEast in 1985, in reference to the Chiltern Hills which the route passes through near its southern end. The route was originally part of the Great Western Railway's main line from London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill, Wolverhampton Low Level and Birkenhead Woodside. Most main line services between London and Birmingham on this route were discontinued in 1967 after the West Coast Main Line was electrified, and Snow Hill station was closed.
context_section_description: During the heyday of the route, many prestigious trains ran from Paddington to the northwest of England via the Joint Line, reaching Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Wrexham General, Chester and Birkenhead Woodside. Various through services from Marylebone to the GCR network also ran via the Joint Line between London and Ashendon Junction.
  At nationalisation in 1948, the line passed to the Western Region of British Railways, which continued to operate Paddington – Birmingham – Wolverhampton - Birkenhead fast trains through the 1950s in competition with the London Midland Region's (LMR) from Euston via the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
  The Paddington – Birmingham – Wolverhampton - Birkenhead fast service was sharply increased in frequency to up to 15 trains a day each way from the 1959–60 timetable to compensate for the withdrawal of most LMR trains during electrification of the WCML. For the same reason, the Chiltern line was used by many trains between Paddington and Birkenhead from 1965.
  All local trains were diverted to Marylebone in 1963 and operated by four-car Class 115 DMUs, and the main-line platforms at Greenford on the New North route between Old Oak Common and Northolt Junction were closed.
  After the GCR main line was closed between Calvert and Rugby Central in September 1966, some trains from the South Coast were diverted north of Banbury via the route.  These became the forerunners of today's CrossCountry services between Birmingham and Bournemouth.
  On 6 March 1967, after completion of the WCML electrification, express trains from Paddington to Birmingham/Wolverhampton/Birkenhead were discontinued under The Reshaping of British Railways.  The route was downgraded to secondary status and subsequently single-tracked between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction, which remained a flying junction, with a crossing loop at Bicester not normally used. Through lines were removed from most of those stations which had them, such as Denham in 1965, Beaconsfield in 1973 and Gerrards Cross in 1989 and the relief lines were lifted between Lapworth and Tyseley. The tunnel between Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill closed on 2 March 1968. Local services from Leamington and Stratford terminated at Moor Street, and the remaining services from Paddington and the South Coast were diverted into New Street. Snow Hill closed completely, along with most of the line to Wolverhampton, on 4 March 1972.
  Although a two-hourly locomotive-hauled semi-fast service from Paddington to Birmingham continued via High Wycombe, Princes Risborough, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington and Solihull, in the early 1970s all but one daily peak-hour return journey were diverted via Reading and Oxford, and later via Coventry, and in the 1980s that was truncated to run to Banbury only. All other passenger services were operated by DMUs to and from Marylebone, extended from High Wycombe to Banbury (for connections to Birmingham), on a two-hourly frequency.
  On 24 March 1974 the line from Marylebone to Banbury transferred from the Western Region to the London Midland Region and all stations between South Ruislip and Bicester were also transferred to LMR giving LMR the responsibility of all passenger services out of Marylebone.
  In 1977 the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of the rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options to electrify numerous routes by 2000. Some of these options included the Banbury – Birmingham section of the line, plus the Cherwell Valley Line and the Coventry to Leamington line. Under the 1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded the 1976–79 Labour government the proposals were not implemented.
  The route was considered for partial closure in the 1980s. All services would have run to Paddington via the New North route, and Marylebone station and all lines leading to it would have been closed. Services to and from Aylesbury would have run via Princes Risborough. However, Marylebone was formally reprieved in 1986 and the closure proposals rescinded.
  Between 19
caption: Class 52 hauling an express from Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside near Seer Green in 1962
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