A report in the Watford Observer indicates the reporter’s attempts to raise the ugly head of the Metropolitan Line Extension (MLX) above the parapet once again (“Ascot Road flats on the way up”).

The report says the Ascot Road development was supposed to capitalise on the potential for a new Met line station (Cassiobridge) but London mayor Sadiq Khan then scrapped the extension in 2018.

The MLX would have been devastating for Watford and for Watford Met Station if it had gone ahead. The MLX has been an unwarranted burden on Watford for over seven years up to 2018, when Sadiq Khan ‘pulled the plug’.

The Croxley rail schemes (now MLX) date back as far as 1956, when it would have cost £500,000, and was sensibly stopped because it was too expensive. In 2011, when the MLX project first started to gain traction, the cost was to be £116 million ‘and not a penny more’. Costs inevitably then escalated to £384 million by 2018 and, at that figure, it was the most expensive five miles of rail track ever!

The consequences of the MLX raising its ugly head again, would result in the closure of Watford Met Station and Watford and the surrounding area will lose its second largest railway station. Too much of Watford’s history and heritage has already been lost, so I really would hate to see the curtains coming down on this wonderful old railway station that celebrates its 100th birthday on October 31, 2025, and a railway station that is still used by 1.86 million commuters every year.

Ernie MacKenzie

Gammons Lane, Watford