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Amersham station

Coordinates: 51°40′26″N 0°36′25″W / 51.674°N 0.607°W / 51.674; -0.607
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Amersham London Underground National Rail
Station entrance
Amersham is located in Buckinghamshire
Amersham
Amersham
Location of Amersham in Buckinghamshire
LocationAmersham
Local authorityBuckinghamshire
Managed byLondon Underground[1]
Station code(s)AMR
Number of platforms3
AccessibleYes[2]
Fare zone9
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019Increase 2.35 million[3]
2020Decrease 0.86 million[4]
2021Increase 0.95 million[5]
2022Increase 1.66 million[6]
2023Increase 1.73 million[7]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2018–19Increase 1.992 million[8]
2019–20Increase 2.067 million[8]
2020–21Decrease 0.451 million[8]
2021–22Increase 1.140 million[8]
2022–23Increase 1.563 million[8]
Key dates
1892Opened
4 July 1966Goods yard closed[9]
Other information
External links
Coordinates51°40′26″N 0°36′25″W / 51.674°N 0.607°W / 51.674; -0.607
London transport portal

Amersham is a London Underground station in the market town of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, England which is also used by National Rail services.

Amersham station is a terminus of the London Underground's Metropolitan line.[2] It is 23.7 miles (38.1 km) northwest of Charing Cross, making it the second furthest Underground station from central London and the second most westerly station of the whole London Underground system, after Chesham.[10] It is in Travelcard Zone 9[2] (previously zone D).

The station has the highest elevation on the entire London Underground network at 147m above sea-level, higher than Big Ben tower.[11]

Amersham station is also served by Chiltern Railways, which runs trains between London Marylebone and Aylesbury. From Aylesbury a shuttle service to Princes Risborough provides access to through services between Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill. The journey times between Amersham and Central London range between 33 and 60 minutes. The journey time between Amersham and Chalfont & Latimer is about three and a half minutes.[12]

History

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Marylebone - Woodford Halse stopping train in 1959

The station was opened on 1 September 1892 as part of the Metropolitan Railway (Met) extension from Chalfont Road (now Chalfont & Latimer) to Aylesbury.[13] On 12 March 1922, its name was changed to "Amersham & Chesham Bois", but the original name was restored during 1937.

From 16 March 1899, the Great Central Railway served the station through its extension to Marylebone.[14] Consequently, the station became joint Met/GCR owned. On 1 January 1923, the GCR became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)[14] under the Railways Act 1921, and on 1 July 1933 the Met became part of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), becoming the Metropolitan line of the London Underground. On 1 January 1948, the LNER was nationalised, its share of the station initially coming under the control of the Eastern Region of British Railways, before being transferred to the London Midland Region in 1958.[14]

On 12 September 1960, the tracks from Rickmansworth to Amersham were electrified,[13] partially fulfilling plans first proposed some thirty years earlier. The rolling stock ordered by London Underground as part of this project, the A60 stock, is named after Amersham.

Platform view

Service changes

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When the sectorisation of British Rail took place in 1982, services to Aylesbury on what had by now become the London to Aylesbury Line came under the operation of Network SouthEast. Following the privatisation of British Rail in the early 1990s, these services have been provided by Chiltern Railways.

From December 2010, off-peak Metropolitan line services to and from Amersham were reduced to two per hour,[13] with a corresponding increase in through services on the Chesham branch. This is a return to the historically normal frequency of two Metropolitan trains per hour from the four Metropolitan trains per hour service that had been operating for the previous five years. Including the Chiltern Railways services, Amersham still has four trains an hour to London in total, with extra trains from both operators at peak hours. Metropolitan line services are divided 50:50 between Amersham and Chesham.[13] This is expected to divide park and ride or kiss and ride motorist users more evenly between the two stations and help spread the load on local roads, though the change was made purely for operational reasons.[15]

The station today

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The station is located on Station Approach, Amersham.[16] Ticket barriers are in operation at the station.[1]

In 2009, because of financial constraints, Transport for London (TfL) decided to stop work on a project to provide step-free access at Amersham and five other stations, on the grounds that these are relatively quiet stations and some are already one or two stops away from an existing step-free station.[17][note 1] In 2017, TfL announced that Amersham station would receive funding for step-free access, and that work would begin in 2018.[18] It was opened in February 2021.[19]

Services

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Services at Amersham are operated by Chiltern Railways and London Underground on the Metropolitan line. The off-peak service at the station is:

Preceding station London Underground Following station
Terminus Metropolitan line Chalfont & Latimer
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Great Missenden   Chiltern Railways
London to Aylesbury Line
  Chalfont & Latimer or London Marylebone
Disused railways
Preceding station London Underground Following station
Great Missenden
towards Aylesbury
Metropolitan line Chalfont & Latimer

Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^ The next station towards London, Chalfont & Latimer, and Chesham station, around 2 miles (3.2 km) north, both have step-free access.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b National Rail Enquiries – Station facilities for Amersham
  2. ^ a b c d Standard Tube Map (PDF) (Map). Not to scale. Transport for London. April 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  3. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2019. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  4. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  6. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2023. Transport for London. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Estimates of station usage". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  9. ^ Hardy, Brian, ed. (March 2011). "How it used to be – freight on The Underground 50 years ago". Underground News (591). London: London Underground Railway Society: 175–183. ISSN 0306-8617.
  10. ^ OpenStreetMap
  11. ^ "The London Underground station that's so high up it would tower over Big Ben". www.msn.com. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  12. ^ "Tube Facts – Stations that it takes the longest to travel between". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  13. ^ a b c d Feather, Clive. "Metropolitan line". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014.
  14. ^ a b c "The Great Central Railway – History". n.d. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  15. ^ "'S' stock making its mark". Modern Railways. London. December 2010. p. 46.
  16. ^ Google Maps – Amersham Station
  17. ^ "Disability and Deaf Equality Scheme (DES) 2009-2012". TfL. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
  18. ^ Sheth Trivedi, Shruti (29 June 2017). "Amersham Underground station to go step-free". Bucks Free Press. High Wycombe. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  19. ^ "London Underground adds step-free access to Amersham station". ianVisits. 4 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.

Further reading

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