Varsity Line

• "The Varsity Line and the lines it meets. Disused or freight-only sections are in blue." Source of svg file: Wikipedia (2008)

"Cambridge—Milton Keynes loose links may well provide additionsl fragmented educational servicing web (cf. Atom, AD 5/68)."
(Cedric Price, AD 5/69)

1 Introduction
2 Why have I chosen the following articles?
3 Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line'
4 Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations'
5 Notes
6 Reference
7 Further reading
8 Appendix (incomplete)

[edit] Introduction

When I first started my slot as Designing Buildings' Guest Editor I searched the site using the term 'Varsity Line'. There's a particular and personal reason for this: I worked in Oxford and lived In Cambridge (late nineties) and there was no direct railway route linking these university cities - in this particular case the line between Bicester and Oxford was closed to passengers and the line from Bedford (Goldington Power Station) to the junction at Cambridge was closed completely. In fact, I don't think anyone had seriously considered an alternative to travel by road.

The results of my search on the site stated:—

"This page does not exist. Click here to create the page "Varsity Line"

I therefore created the page "Varsity Line" with a copy of the image shown above:—

10:42, 11 March 2024 Archiblog (Talk | contribs) (274 bytes) (Created page with "File:Item 24789 - Varsity Line.png • The Varsity Line and the lines it meets. Disused or freight-only sections are in blue. (By Dtcdthingy - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0) [[http...")

My next step was to search the web using the same term - see Appendix.

Below are my reasons for having chosen two articles describing the Varsity Line.

[edit] Why have I chosen the following articles?

I have chosen two related articles:—

Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia;
Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations', disused-stations.org

[edit] Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line'

The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge before January 1968. The article draws my attention because of my interest in the need to reconstruct the line as part of an egalitarian educational system.

According to the Wikipedia article entitled 'Varsity Line', the railway was built by three local schemes, namely:—

1846 - 'Bedford Railway', Bedford-Bletchley; [1]
1851 - 'Buckinghamshire Railway', Bletchley-Oxford; [2]
1862 - 'Bedford and Cambridge Railway', Bedford-Cambridge. [3]

• Bedford-Bletchley.

• Bletchley-Oxford.

• Bedford-Cambridge.

• Table 1: The three sections which became incorporated into the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). [5]

In 1923, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway, one of the 'Big Four' group of companies [6]

According to Wikipedia, there were also five intersecting trunk lines running north-south, namely:–

The Great Western Railway at Oxford, with its northward allies;
the London and Birmingham Railway, forming part of the later West Coast Main Line;
the Midland Main Line, opened by the Midland Railway, crossing the route at Bedford;
the East Coast Main Line, opened by the Great Northern Railway, forming a connection at Sandy; and
the Eastern Counties Railway at Cambridge.

In addition, two other trunk routes were built later, namely:—

the Bicester cut-off; [7]
the Great Central Railway main line. [8]

In 1948, the LMS was nationalised to form part of British Railways [9] as a result of the Transport Act 1947 [10].

[edit] Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations'

The Disused Stations website draws my attention because of my interest in the Varsity Line and in the reconstruction of the Bedford-Cambridge section in particular. In addition to photographs it also provides maps and detailed information about all of these stations.