The Metropolitan Railway had reached Aylesbury in 1892 and had taken over the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway in 1891, thereby gaining a route between Aylesbury and Verney Junction via Quainton Road. However the Great Western Railway had sponsored the Wycombe Railway, which had been the first railway in Aylesbury: its branch from Princes Risborough reached there in 1863. In 1898 the GCR wished to send coal trains to London over the GWR Aylesbury to Princes Risborough line, and on 30 July 1898 the first such train approached Aylesbury. This was one day earlier than the agreed start date. John Bell, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Railway and William Pollitt was General Manager of the MS&LR. Bell personally went to Quainton Road and took charge, blocking the onward journey of the train. In fact he even refused to allow the engine to draw forward to run round its train; propelling a long mineral train back wrong line was out of the question, and a major disruption occurred. The mineral traffic started the following day. He had earlier refused to allow these trains to run the relatively short distance from Quainton Road to Aylesbury until the GCR London Extension was open throughout its length. This obstruction for the sake of one day was the clearest indication that the Metropolitan Railway was not going to be a co-operative partner to the GCR. This was compounded by Bell's absolute refusal to allow mineral traffic to be worked to the GWR at Aylesbury, not to destinations south of London over its own system.