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| - The first station on the site was first opened in 1863 by the Wycombe Railway (later GWR). In 1868 the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway (later Metropolitan Railway) connected to Aylesbury. The Metropolitan Railway connected from Little Chalfont in 1892, in which the station was rebuilt. The Great Central Railway connected to Aylesbury in 1899 from Annesley Junction just north of Nottingham on their 'London Extension' line to London Marylebone. Because the station had been a terminus for the Metropolitan railway the original junction layout on the route to London Marylebone included a sharp curve. While not important to trains stopping at the station it took on a different significance once some Great Central trains began to run non-stop through Aylesbury from 1899 onwards. Rather than change the junction layout to accommodate faster trains a 15 mph speed restriction was placed on the curve. On 23 December 1904 at about 3.38 am this curve was the site of the Aylesbury Railway Disaster. The 2.45 am Great Central express newspaper train from London Marylebone consisting of an engine, tender, and ten vehicles - three coaches, an assortment of six fish, meat and parcel vans, and a brake van - failed to slow for the curve, and became completely derailed. The engine, tender, and the first three or four vehicles mounted the down platform of the station, two vehicles mounted the up platform, and the rest of the train was smashed to pieces and scattered over a distance of 50 yards between the two platforms. The driver of the train, Joseph Barnshaw was seriously injured and died the next day. The fireman George Masters was killed as also were London-based driver David Summers and fireman Josiah Stanton who were travelling as passengers in the first coach on their way to Gorton, Manchester. There was heavy fog at the time of the accident, and at the subsequent Board of Trade inquiry there was some doubt as to how well driver Barnshaw knew the route . What the inquiry did not touch on was that there had been a history of fast running of these newspaper trains, which had become an important traffic for the Great Central Railway. This dated back to the Boer War which had ended only two years earlier. The Manchester Guardian's stance on the Boer War had resulted in significant drops in circulation, and the London newspapers (led by the Daily Mail) saw a significant business opportunity in the Manchester area. They sought to get their morning newspapers to Manchester in time to grab a share of this market. These trains recorded fast times for the era, including an authenticated timing of 220 minutes for the 206 mile journey including stops. The current station buildings date from 1926 when the station was again extensively rebuilt by the LNER. Until nationalisation in 1948, Aylesbury was a joint station operated by the LNER and the Great Western Railway. Until 1966, Aylesbury was an intermediate station on the former Great Central Railway main line from London Marylebone to Sheffield Victoria and on to Manchester via the Woodhead Tunnel. Aylesbury was also on the Metropolitan Railway (later Metropolitan Line) and through trains from Baker Street to Verney Junction operated until 1936. From 1948 to 1961 Aylesbury was the terminus of the Met's mainline in which trains had to change from electric to steam locomotives at Rickmansworth. Following electrification from Rickmansworth to Amersham, Aylesbury was no longer served by London Underground trains. In 1966, the Great Central Main Line was closed north of Aylesbury. Aylesbury was thus left with commuter services to London only. From the 1960s until the 1980s, passenger trains at Aylesbury were almost exclusively operated by British Rail Class 115 diesel multiple units. By the 1980s, the lines serving Aylesbury were in a poor state. Aylesbury station itself was run down and needed a facelift. Network SouthEast decided to revamp the lines out of Marylebone, and Aylesbury was refurbished with the addition of a new waiting room, new toilets and better lighting. Platform 4 was closed and the car park was extended. A new driver's staff room on platform 3 and a new heavy maintenance depot was built just north of the station. Aylesbury became the headquarters of the operational side of the Chiltern Line. (For more information, see: Chiltern Line Modernisation) On the 14th December 2008, two miles of the line north of Aylesbury was reopened for passenger service, with regular passenger services running north of the station for the first time since 1966. This new service is to Aylesbury Vale Parkway opened by Chiltern Railways.
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