The abandoned railway line through Thame used to form part of a secondary GWR route to Oxford, leaving the company's London-Banbury main line at Princes Risborough.

In the 1990s, Sustrans Ltd., the path-building charity, purchased the trackbed between Princes Risborough and Thame from the British Rail Property Board, and began to convert it into a walk and cycle trail. Unfortunately, the conversion work got no further than Hinton Crossing, where progress to the west was effectively blocked by a dispute. The owners of the adjoining property (once a 'tied house' used by the GWR crossing keeper) claimed ownership of the trackbed first under the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act of 1845, and, when that failed, under the dubious right of "adverse possession". After a protracted legal battle (which enriched members of the legal profession but impoverished everyone else), the owners have withdrawn their claim and a compromise has been reached. This will allow the path to continue past their property on a strip of land adjoining the old railway formation, thereby preserving their privacy whilst enabling the path to be opened up for regular use. The purchase of additional land and construction of the diversion (which is very short) will be carried out entirely at the owners' expense. Following this successful outcome, on 8 December 2000, Railway Ramblers paid over to Sustrans the balance of its grant for the purchase of this line.

Further news has just broken on this trail. When staff from Sustrans began negotiations to extend the railway path west from Thame, it was found that the new franchise bid by Chiltern Trains includes the re-building of the whole line from Princes Risborough back to Oxford as a 'new' cross-country rail route. Sustrans will not oppose these plans, provided that Chiltern Trains provides an alternative cycle trail along the same general 'corridor', i.e. between Princes Risborough and Thame.

Report by Jeff Vinter