The Varsity Line (or Oxford to Cambridge Line) is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways. A pun on the railway term main line was sometimes employed by describing the line as the "Brain Line". Services were withdrawn from the Oxford - Bletchley section and the Bedford - Cambridge section at the end of 1967, even though the line had not been listed for closure as part of the Beeching Axe in 1963.