Croxley Rail Link
The proposed route was featured in a Transport for London network map for 2016 and the Transport for London Indicative 2025 Transport Map on which Watford tube station does not appear. Were the link to be built, direct services between Watford Junction and Amersham would be possible but were not included in the business case for the scheme.
The project was approved by the government on 14 December 2011 and vegetation clearance started during 2013. The project received final government approval through an order under the Transport and Works Act on 24 July 2013 and was signed off and formally given the green light by the government on 17 March 2015 when it was confirmed that Transport for London would be responsible. Work on the extension stopped in 2016 due to anticipated cost overruns and an unresolved dispute over funding. London mayor Sadiq Khan announced in 2018 that there was no funding for the project.
History
The present-day London Underground Watford station is situated close to Cassiobury Park and somewhat peripheral to the town centre. Watford Urban District Council objected to the proposal to drive a railway across the park, resulting in the terminus of the Watford branch being a mile (1.6 km.) from the High Street.
Also in the area was the single-track Watford and Rickmansworth Railway that opened in 1862 between Watford Junction and Rickmansworth (Church Street). British Rail withdrew passenger services from the Rickmansworth branch in 1952 and ran a skeleton service on the Croxley Green branch until 1996.
Over the years, various schemes were considered to extend the Metropolitan line into the centre of Watford, including an abandoned plan in 1927 to open a Metropolitan Railway station on the High Street, Watford Central. In 1948, the London Transport Executive (LTE), part of the British Transport Commission, considered a proposal to link the Metropolitan line to the BR Croxley Green branch line. A similar proposal was put forward by London Regional Transport (LRT) around 1994. Because the line lay entirely within Hertfordshire, it was championed by the county council who lobbied for funding from LRT (later TfL) and the Department for Transport for 16 years.
Funding
In 2005 Transport for London (TfL) tentatively committed to providing up to £18 million of the estimated cost of £65 million, predicting that the link would be operational by 2010. Difficulties arose in securing the remaining funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) and a revised project submission, under new guidelines, was prepared, with a view to obtaining Programme Entry status. A business case was submitted to the DfT in February 2008, with revised costs of £95 million. The proposal was rejected in March on the basis that no guarantee of financial backing had been received from TfL. In July 2008 the East of England Regional Assembly declared the scheme a "priority" and agreed to contribute £119.5 million towards the estimated cost, now £150 million. Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) agreed to allocate £25.8 million which it hoped to recover through ticket sales and other London Underground revenue. It was predicted that the link could be operational within seven years.
A revised business case was produced in autumn 2009 and the costs and scope reviewed. Following the Cameron–Clegg coalition's Comprehensive Spending Review the project was placed in the pre-qualification pool and a further submission made to the Department for Transport in January 2011. In February 2011 the Department for Transport placed the project into a qualification pool of works that would be subjected to further assessments in order to bid for funding. A Best and Final Funding Bid was submitted to the Department in September 2011. On 14 December 2011, the Department for Transport agreed to fund £76.2 million of the £115.9 million cost, with the remainder from the local authorities (£33.7 million) and third parties (£6.86 million).
In December 2014, Hertfordshire County Council announced that the projected cost of the scheme would rise to £230 million. It was also reported that London Underground could take over construction of the link from Network Rail. According to TfL, HCC had significantly underestimated the costs and the project was faced with "significant project slippage and cost escalation", and for this reason, an agreement was reached with the DfT and HCC whereby London Underground would assume full responsibility for the project, subject to a suitable funding package. Hertfordshire County Council would now contribute £230 million, £34 million would be provided by central government, and LU was to contribute £16 million.
On 25 January 2017, the Watford Observer newspaper confirmed that work which had been ongoing since 2014 had stopped as there was an ongoing funding issue; Transport for London were stating that more than £50 million additional funding was required. A Freedom of Information request revealed that £130 million of the £284 million funding had already been spent, but the only works that had actually been delivered were some utility diversions and route clearance.
In September 2017, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, gave more clarity to the issue, relieving Transport for London of any obligation imposed on it by the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson, to fund a cost overrun. It was noted that at the budgeted cost of £284.4 million, the cost-benefit ratio of the project was only 0.4, so funding a cost overrun now estimated at £73.4 million on top of the £49.2 million Transport for London were already contributing, would not give value for money. It stated that Transport for London's sunk expenditure on the project was £71.2 million, of which £15.5 million was for buying an additional train, which has been delivered and put into service.
In 2018, the government offered Transport for London the £73.4 million additional funding it was apparently asking for, taking total funding available to £357.8 million, subject to Transport for London accepting cost overrun risk again. This arrangement was turned down by the Mayor. The parties were later reported to be examining cheaper alternative schemes such as a rapid bus transit scheme and light rail.
In late 2020, Three Rivers District Council announced that it was seeking to revive the link, citing it as a "shovel ready" project. Discussing the bid, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Croxley Green Peter Getkahn cited Boris Johnson's pledge to "build back better" after the COVID-19 pandemic, mentioning that the extension to the Metropolitan line would be a suitable target for this.