Hitchin railway station

Hitchin railway station serves the market town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. It is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north east of the town centre and 31 miles 74 chains (51.4 km) north of London King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line.[1]

Hitchin
National Rail
The tracks and platform 2
General information
LocationHitchin, North Hertfordshire
England
Grid referenceTL194297
Managed byGreat Northern
Platforms2
Tracks4
Other information
Station codeHIT
ClassificationDfT category C2
History
Original companyGreat Northern Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
7 August 1850Station opened
Passengers
2018/19Increase 3.265 million
 Interchange  0.174 million
2019/20Decrease 3.234 million
 Interchange Decrease 0.164 million
2020/21Decrease 0.750 million
 Interchange Decrease 45,488
2021/22Increase 1.981 million
 Interchange Increase 0.102 million
2022/23Increase 2.512 million
 Interchange Decrease 77,171
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
The front entrance to the station in 2017
Auto-train to Bedford in 1955
Double-headed train of bricks off Bedford line in 1957
A 1902 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Hitchin (right)

Until the current Stevenage station opened in 1973, many Intercity services stopped at Hitchin.

In August 2007 Hitchin was awarded Secure Station status after improvements to station security were made by First Capital Connect, including new lighting, extra CCTV and the installation of automatic ticket gates.

History

edit

The first section of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) - that from Louth to a junction with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Grimsby - opened on 1 March 1848, but the southern section of the main line, between Maiden Lane and Peterborough, was not opened until August 1850. Hitchin was one of the original stations, opening with the line on 7 August 1850.[2][3][4]

On 21 October 1850 Hitchin became a junction station with the opening of the first section of the Royston and Hitchin Railway, between Hitchin and Royston (it was extended to Shepreth on 3 August 1851).[5] The Midland Railway (MR) opened a route from Leicester via Bedford to Hitchin on 1 February 1858, by which MR trains used the GNR to reach London.[6]

After the opening of the Midland Railway's own line from Bedford via Luton to London, and the line's terminus at St. Pancras in 1868, their line between Bedford and Hitchin was reduced to branch status. It lost its passenger service in 1961 and was closed completely in 1964, with the exception of a stub from Bedford to Cardington which itself was closed in 1969. In May 1964 part of the line was used for the railway scene in the film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.[7] The embankment for the line could, until early 2012, still be walked from just north of the station, through the fields to Ickleford, but this section is now closed off. Opened in June 2013 a new embankment now carries a single-track line onto a viaduct for Letchworth-bound trains over the East Coast Main Line as part of the Hitchin Flyover project.[8]

Accidents and incidents

edit

Facilities

edit
Great Northern route
 
King's Lynn
 
Watlington
 
Downham Market
 
Littleport
 
Ely
 
Waterbeach
 
Cambridge North
 
Cambridge
 
 
Foxton
 
Shepreth
Peterborough
 
 
Meldreth
Huntingdon
 
 
Royston
St Neots
 
 
Ashwell & Morden
St Neots South/Tempsford
 
 
Sandy
 
 
Baldock
Biggleswade
 
 
Arlesey
 
 
Letchworth Garden City
 
 
Hitchin
 
Stevenage
 
 
 
Knebworth
 
 
Watton-at-Stone
Welwyn North
 
 
Hertford North
Welwyn Garden City
 
 
Bayford
Hatfield
 
 
Cuffley
Welham Green
 
 
Brookmans Park
 
 
Crews Hill
Potters Bar
 
 
 
Gordon Hill
 
 
 
Enfield Chase
Hadley Wood
 
 
 
Grange Park
New Barnet
 
 
Winchmore Hill
Oakleigh Park
 
 
Palmers Green
New Southgate
 
 
Bowes Park
 
 
Alexandra Palace
 
Hornsey
 
Harringay
 
  Finsbury Park
 
 
 
 
 
  London King's Cross
 
 
 
 
Drayton Park
  London St Pancras International
 
 
Highbury & Islington    
 
 
Essex Road
 
Old Street  
 
Moorgate  

There are platforms on only the two 'Slow' lines; they are long enough for 12-car trains.

Following a refurbishment of the station by First Capital Connect in 2007, the station's subway was refurbished at a cost of £300k.[12] The refurbishment also involved general cosmetic work throughout the station and a new high quality waiting room in the existing station buildings on Platform 2. This waiting room is fully accessible at all times through automatic doors.

The station has a large booking office with touch-screen ticket machines. The station has help points throughout.

A small shop is located by the stairs on Platform 2 and there are vending machines throughout the station.

Automatic ticket gates at the station entrance were installed by First Capital Connect during 2007.

The station's bicycle facilities were completely upgraded in 2007 and now include sheltered spaces for 68 bicycles next to the station buildings.

In 2013, Network Rail proposed plans for new lifts, one on each platform, to improve access via the existing subway for those with pushchairs or disabilities, funded through the Department for Transport's Access for All scheme.[13] The new lifts opened in September 2014 after a two-month delay, giving step-free access to the southbound number 1 platform.[14]

Services

edit

Services at Hitchin are operated by Great Northern and Thameslink using Class 387 and 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[15]

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station   National Rail Following station
Great Northern
Thameslink
Thameslink
Historical railways
Line open, station relocated
Great Northern Railway
Line open, station closed
Disused railways
Line and station closed
London, Midland and Scottish RailwayTerminus

Junction development

edit

Down trains from London to Cambridge used to use a ladder crossing over the up lines in order to reach the Cambridge Line, which often caused significant delays to trains in both directions. Together with the Digswell Viaduct some 10 miles (16 km) to the south, the flat junction just north of Hitchin was a major bottleneck.[16]

In June 2013 Network Rail completed a flyover to carry Down trains to Cambridge over the top of the main line,[17] built at a final cost of £47million [18]

References

edit
  1. ^ Yonge, John (September 2006) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). 2: Eastern. Railway Track Diagrams (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. p. 15 section B. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.
  2. ^ Gordon, W.J. (1989) [1910]. Our Home Railways. London: Bracken Books. volume II, p. 44. ISBN 1-85170-314-4.
  3. ^ Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. p. 135. CN 8983.
  4. ^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 121. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
  5. ^ Awdry 1990, p. 158
  6. ^ Gordon 1989, volume I, pp. 77–8
  7. ^ Howard, Philip (2006). Take the Train from Hitchin. Hitchin: Hitchin Historical Society. pp. 20–22. ISBN 0-9552411-0-3.
  8. ^ Network Rail. "Hitchin Flyover". Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  9. ^ Whitmore, Richard (2007). The Ghosts of Reginald Hine. Hitchin: Mattingley Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-9554662-0-5.
  10. ^ Fleck, Alan L. (2004). "Hine, Reginald Leslie (1883–1949)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  11. ^ Trevena, Arthur (1981). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 2. Redruth: Atlantic Books. pp. 40–14. ISBN 0-906899 03 6.
  12. ^ "First Capital Connect - News". Archived from the original on 17 March 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
  13. ^ Access for All: funding to improve accessibility at rail stations
  14. ^ "New lifts open at Hitchin railway station". 5 September 2014.
  15. ^ Table 25, 52 National Rail timetable, December 2023
  16. ^ "APPENDIX 2: Issues in defining and measuring railway capacity" (PDF). Office of Rail Regulation. 13 February 2006. p. 2. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  17. ^ "Hitchin flyover". Network Rail. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  18. ^ "Hitchin flyover opens".
edit

51°57′11″N 0°15′47″W / 51.953°N 0.263°W / 51.953; -0.263