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]
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.
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.
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
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]
^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. ISSN0306-8617.