A TRANSPORT historian from Chesham has expressed concerns about the future of Chesham's railway line if the former Cottage Hospital site is redeveloped.

John Healey, of Ashley Green Road, Chesham, is the author of 14 publications on railway lines in the Chilterns and surrounding areas.

He is worried that if the hospital site is redeveloped for residential use, the line operator, London Underground Limited (LUL), will be persuaded to sell part of its line to provide residents' access.

Mr Healey said: "London Underground owns the land adjacent to the hospital site and the track.

"If a developer is interested in buying the hospital site, they might make an offer for the extra land owned by the railway company. Either way the developer will still need an access road to the properties and one solution may be to sell part of the railway line and close the station altogether or move the station to its original proposed site in Chesham Moor."

The hospital site owner, Chiltern and South Bucks Primary Care Trust, applied to Chiltern District Council earlier this year for a change of use on the hospital site for up to 80 flats.

One of the reasons it chose not to continue providing community health services from that site was because of the poor access route leading up to it on a particularly steep hill, which is the basis for Mr Healey's concern.

LUL proposals to withdraw the Chesham-to-London through train service caused great concern among residents during the recent public consultations prompting more than 300 inquries and raising fears about the station's future viability.

Mr Healey says any reduction in services from Chesham could give LUL an added incentive to sell part of its line to property developers for access.

A spokesman for London Underground said it had not reached any decision about the through train services and did not wish to comment on its wider plans until a decision had been made.