Aylesbury (AYS)

Aylesbury is a stop on the London Marylebone-Aylesbury Line between Stoke Mandeville and Aylesbury Vale Parkway in Buckinghamshire. The station is also the terminus of the Princes Risborough-Aylesbury Line. Aylesbury was once the terminus of the London Underground Metropolitan Line though is nowadays only served by National Rail.
Chiltern 165 006 departs

Information
Type: National Rail (London Marylebone-Aylesbury Line)
Station code: AYS
Opened: 1863
Platforms: 3

Aylesbury station was opened in 1863 by the Wycombe Railway originally as a broad gauge line via Princes Risborough. This line was converted to standard gauge when the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway reached the town and the station was taken over by the Great Western Railway.

The Metropolitan Railway reached Aylesbury in 1892 [1] though used a separate station, Aylesbury (Brook Street) next to the original station. Two years later this station was closed and the Metropolitan Railway used the GWR station instead [2], the station was rebuilt and expanded in 1893 with another rebuild in the mid-1920s [3]. The Grand Central Railway reached Aylesbury in 1899 and Aylesbury became a stop on the Great Central Main Line out of London Marylebone.

From 1948 Aylesbury became the terminus of the Metropolitan Line, though trains were steam hauled from Rickmansworth onward. However after electrification as far as Amersham London Underground discontinued the use of steam haulage. London Underground services beyond Amersham ceased in 1961.

Aylesbury was in a poor state by the 1980s but was renewed as part of Network South East's improvement of services out of London Marylebone. A new maintenance depot was built next to the station in 1991 as the operational headquarters of the Chiltern Line [4].

Aylesbury is managed by Chiltern Railways, recently step-free access to the platforms has been added.
View down the platforms towards London

Platform buildings and new lift acess

Main station building

Island platform building

Chiltern 165 015 departs for Aylesbury Vale Parkway

[1] Mike Horne, The Metropolitan Line (Capital Transport, 2003) p. 16
[2] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Branch Lines to Princes Risborough (Middleton Press, 2003) Fig. 1
[3] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rickmansworth to Aylesbury (Middleton Press, 2005) Fig. 102
[4] Mitchell & Smith, Branch Lines Fig. 12