Hatfield railway station
Hatfield | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Location | Borough of Welwyn Hatfield |
| Managed by | Great Northern |
| Platforms | 3 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | HAT |
| History | |
| Original company | Great Northern Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Great Northern Railway |
| Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 7 August 1850 | Station opened |
Hatfield railway station serves the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire, England. The station is managed by Great Northern. It is located approximately 18 miles (29 km) north of London Kings Cross on the East Coast Main Line.
History
Hatfield was the junction for a now-closed branch line to Dunstable Town. It was also the junction of a second railway that ran to St Albans Abbey. The former was closed in 1965 under the Beeching Axe, and the latter succumbed some 14 years earlier (in 1951) as part of postwar economies brought in by the British Transport Commission. The route of the St Albans Abbey line is now a public footpath, the Alban Way, while the closure of the Dunstable Town line has left Dunstable as one of the largest towns in England without a direct rail connection.
Facilities
Hatfield has waiting rooms on all platforms, with extra shelters provided at various points along the platforms, as well as a canopy on Platform 1. There is a small café-shop style business, "Chuggs" on Platform 1, and three new retail units are scheduled to open in the new station building in the second half of 2015. There are three platform faces in total - platform 1 is a side platform facing the Up Slow line & used by London-bound trains (there is no platform on the Up Fast line), whilst platforms 2 & 3 face the Down Fast and Down Slow lies respectively; the latter is used by the majority of northbound trains.
The station has a "Fast-Ticket" machine, as well as a standard touchscreen machine on either side of the building. Hatfield also has many vending machines throughout the station and a photo booth inside the booking hall, which also contains toilets for both genders and a separate disabled toilet. Ticket barriers are in operation.
Services
During the daytime there is generally a half-hourly fast service to London Kings Cross southbound and also every 20 minutes a stopping service to Moorgate Monday to Fridays and half-hourly on weekends to Kings Cross.
Northbound there is an hourly service to bothCambridge and Peterborough, leaving at an alternate half hourly frequency. There is also a stopping service to Welwyn Garden City on the same pattern as that to Moorgate (every 20 minutes weekdays, half-hourly evenings & weekends).[1]
Accidents
Three fatal rail crashes have occurred near Hatfield:
- December 1870 accident, when a disintegrated wheel resulted in the deaths of six passengers and two bystanders.
- Two accidents occurred on 26 January 1939. In the first, an empty fish train was involved in a rear-end collision with a passenger train. The second involved a passenger train which ran into the rear of another. Two people were killed and seven were injured.[2]
- October 2000 accident, when a GNER InterCity 225 train de-railed, killing four people and injuring 70.
Redevelopment
Hatfield Station is to be redeveloped to include a new bus interchange and taxi rank, multi-storey car park, new ticket office, retail units and step-free access to all platforms.[3]
Work on the project, which is to cost £9 million,[4] will begin in 2013 and be completed by the end of that year.
Routes
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potters Bar or Finsbury Park |
Great Northern London-Cambridge semi-fast |
Welwyn Garden City | ||
| Potters Bar | Great Northern London-Peterborough semi-fast |
|||
| Welham Green | Great Northern Great Northern stopping |
|||
| Disused railways | ||||
Line and station closed | London and North Eastern Railway | Terminus | ||
Gallery
-
Hatfield railway station viewed from the public footbridge. -
A Grand Central train speeds through Hatfield en route from Sunderland. -
References
- ^ http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/plan-your-journey/timetables/HAT/
- ^ Trevena, Arthur (1980). Trains in Trouble. Vol. Vol. 1. Redruth: Atlantic Books. p. 41. ISBN 0-906899-01-X.
{{cite book}}:|volume=has extra text (help) - ^ "Better stations - Hatfield". First Capital Connect. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
- ^ Logan, Ross (10 October 2012). "£9m Hatfield rail station refurbishment approved". Welwyn Hatfield Times. Retrieved 15 August 2013.