Gerrards Cross railway station

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox station Gerrards Cross railway station is a railway station in the town of Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the Chiltern Main Line between Template:Rws and Template:Rws.

History

The station was built as part of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway and was opened on 2 April 1906 as Gerrards Cross for the Chalfonts. It is in a deep cutting that was dug for the line to maintain a very shallow maximum gradient, to allow for fast running with steam-hauled trains. The line opened after the Chalfont Viaduct was built Template:Convert further up the line to traverse the River Misbourne.<ref name="kelly">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The original station layout was four-track, with two through roads and two platform roads. The two through roads were disused from 1985 and were completely removed by October 1989. This enabled the Up platform to be extended out and built over what used to be the Up through and platform roads, with the original Up line slewed to the Down through road.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There was a small goods yard north of the line. This has now been removed, but services from Marylebone that terminate at Gerrards Cross use the siding there. There were two signal boxes at Gerrards Cross station, one on the east side of the station and one on the west side. The east signal box was closed in 1923. The west signal box was renamed 'Gerrards Cross' and was located on the Down line and remained in use until 11 August 1990 when a total route modernisation was carried out by British Rail and signalling was passed to the new Marylebone Integrated Control Centre.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The new line and station effectively created the present Gerrards Cross;Template:Citation needed the original settlement lay for the most part along the Oxford Road.

The station was transferred from the Western Region of British Railways to the London Midland Region on 24 March 1974.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Victorian Railway Navvy statue, Gerrards Cross station (5).JPG

Bronze sculpture "The Railway Navvy" by Anthony Stones

The bronze 'Railway Navvy' sculpture behind the Up platform was created by Anthony Stones who was commissioned in 1992 by the Colne Valley Park Groundwork Trust. The band Genesis contributed £3,000 towards the cost of the sculpture in appreciation of their song 'Driving the Last Spike' on their album We Can't Dance.Template:Citation needed

In October 2007 work began on installing ticket barriers; these became operational on Monday 10 March 2008.Template:Citation needed

Between March and June 2021, the station was refurbished. The work included replacing the canopies, installing lighting across the entire station, repairs to the roof and windows, and a repaint.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Tunnel works

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File:Gerrards Cross railway station 2.jpg

Looking west towards the station from the Marsham Lane bridge in March 2005, showing the extent of construction three months before the tunnel collapsed

A development by the Tesco supermarket chain turned the cutting on the London side of the station into a tunnel by the use of large concrete ring segments to form the tunnel profile. The space on top of these segments was filled in to form a ground surface on which the new supermarket was built.

Service interruption

At 19:35 on 30 June 2005, Template:Convert of tunnel roof near its eastern end collapsed, depositing broken tunnel segment fragments and many tonnes of infill material on the track. News pictures showed that the concrete segments adjoining the hole, which were still in place, appeared to have bowed downwards where two segments met.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A Marylebone-bound train was standing at the "up" platform when the tunnel collapsed. Its driver saw the collapse and raised the alarm, so all rail traffic was stopped. No one was injured. A "down" train that had left Template:Rws had to make an emergency stop between stations and go back to Denham Golf Club to allow its passengers to alight. Again, no one was injured.

Service restoration and line centenary

Following work on removing infill material and various concrete segments, both those that actually failed and those that were judged unsafe but had not actually collapsed, the trackwork and signalling system were restored. Train services resumed from start of the normal timetable on Saturday 20 August 2005.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gerrards Cross railway station had its centenary in 2006. This was celebrated with two London, Midland and Scottish Railway steam locomotives, Class 8F 48151 and Jubilee Class 5690 Leander, hauling trains between Marylebone and High Wycombe.

The Monday - Friday off-peak schedule

3 trains per hour to London Marylebone:

• 1 is a fast service, calling at London Marylebone only
• 1 is a semi-fast service, typically calling at Wembley Stadium and London Marylebone
• 1 is a stopping service, calling at most intermediate stations and London Marylebone

2 trains per hour to Oxford

1 train per hour to High Wycombe

The Saturday - Sunday off-peak service

3 trains per hour to London Marylebone:

• 1 is a fast service, calling at London Marylebone only
• 1 is a semi-fast service, typically calling at Denham, Wembley Stadium and London Marylebone
• 1 is a stopping service, calling at most intermediate stations and London Marylebone

2 trains per hour to Oxford

1 train per hour to Aylesbury

The station consists of two platforms, with a turn back siding just west of the station to allow trains to terminate/start at Gerrards Cross.<ref>http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/sites/default/files/Timetable_19th_May_2014.pdfTemplate:Dead link</ref>

As recently as 2011 a single weekday service to Template:Rws started from Gerrards Cross,<ref name="timetable">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> running non-stop from Template:Rws. An equivalent service departed from Paddington, and ran non-stop to Gerrards Cross. These trains traversed the now closed former main line between Northolt Junction and Old Oak Common Junction, in many places reduced to a single track. This section was used more frequently by freight and waste trains, and also diversions during engineering works. The service was later truncated to commence at South Ruislip, returning to High Wycombe without stopping at Gerrards Cross.<ref>2V27 1057 South Ruislip to London Paddington Real Train Times 7 December 2018</ref><ref>2M29 1135 London Paddington to High Wycombe Real Train Times 7 December 2018</ref> In December 2018 was rerouted to West Ealing via the Greenford line.<ref>2V27 1102 South Ruislip to West Ealing Real Train Times 10 December 2018</ref><ref>2M27 1147 West Ealing to High Wycombe Real Train Times 10 December 2018</ref> Template:As of, the service no longer runs and has been replaced by a bus service.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Information and news on the Gerrards Cross Tunnel