Welwyn Garden City railway station

Welwyn Garden City railway station serves the town of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. It is 20 miles 25 chains (20.31 miles, 32.69 km) from London King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line.^[2] Train services are currently provided by Thameslink and Great Northern.

Welwyn Garden City
A view of platform 3
Welwyn Garden City Location of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire
Location	Welwyn Garden City
Local authority	Borough of Welwyn Hatfield
Grid reference	TL240129
Managed by	Great Northern
Station code(s)	WGC
DfT category	C1
Number of platforms	4 (facing 6 tracks)
Accessible	Yes
National Rail annual entry and exit
2019–20	2.739 million[1]
– interchange	55,171[1]
2020–21	0.587 million[1]
– interchange	18,178[1]
2021–22	1.501 million[1]
– interchange	38,232[1]
2022–23	2.081 million[1]
– interchange	41,800[1]
2023–24	2.313 million[1]
– interchange	33,025[1]
Railway companies
Original company	London and North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
1 September 1920	First station Welwyn Garden City Halt opened
20 September 1926	First station closed; present station Welwyn Garden City opened
Other information
External links	Departures Facilities
Coordinates	51.801°N 0.204°W / 51.801; -0.204
London transport portal

History

A station named Welwyn Junction was opened with the Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway on 1 March 1858. This station ceased to be used for services on 1 September 1860.^[3]

A halt named Welwyn Garden City Halt opened on 1 September 1920,^[3] shortly after the town was incorporated; this was on the former Luton/Dunstable branch line,^[4] slightly further north than the present station. This line cuts west and north through Sherrardspark Wood, and on towards Wheathampstead, via what is now Ayot Greenway.

The present Welwyn Garden City station opened on 20 September 1926; the halt was closed at the same time.^[3][5] Prior to this, services to Luton and the Hertford line, which cut east through the town, were handled from nearby Hatfield. The Hertford branch line was closed to rail passenger traffic in 1951 and to goods in 1966, whilst the Dunstable line fell victim to the Beeching Axe in April 1965 (although goods traffic survived until 1971).^[6]

When the Howard Centre shopping centre was opened in October 1990, the original ticket hall was demolished. It is now inside the Howard Centre with steps linking down to the original bridge and then platforms. ^{[citation needed]}

The line near the station has seen two serious train crashes: one in 1935 and another in 1957.

Layout

Platform 1, viewed from the footbridge in May 2017

Between London Kings Cross and Huntingdon, the East Coast Main Line primarily has four tracks which are quadrupled by direction. This means that to terminate and reverse, a commuter train must cross the two fast lines.^[7] As part of the rationalisation and electrification of the East Coast Main Line in the 1970s, a flyover was constructed to the south of the station;^[8] this connects the Up Slow line to platform four. Both the Down Slow line in platform three and the line through platform four can be used bi-directionally, allowing trains to turn back to London.^[7]

The station has four platforms, with two island platforms serving each direction: platforms one and two serve trains to London, and platforms three and four serve northbound and terminating trains. The two fast lines are not platformed.^[7] Platform 4 is specifically used for services to/from Moorgate, terminating trains for the carriage sidings and where trains from the carriage sidings form into passenger service.^[5]

The Up Yard sidings can be accessed from the Up lines to the north and south of the station, and trains can use the flyover to access the northbound platforms by reversing in the Welwyn Reversing Line.^[7] The sidings consist of six unelectrified roads, currently used for the twice-weekly reversal of empty gypsum wagons returning from Hitchin to Peak Forest along occasional Rail tamper units and departmental wagon storage.^{[citation needed]}

The EMU sidings are situated north of the station and consist of nine electrified roads.^[9] Eight-car Class 700 trains can only use five of the sidings to prevent them blocking the neighbouring siding, and this was also the case for the Class 365 when they were used on the Great Northern route.^[5] These sidings, like the flyover, were added by British Rail to coincide with the electrification and modernisation of the route.^[8]

To the north of the station, the slow lines merge into the fast lines at Digswell Junction in order to traverse the two-track Digswell Viaduct; this is 62 chains (0.78 miles, 1.25 km) for the Down Slow line and 79 chains (0.99 miles, 1.59 km) for the Up Slow line.^[7] This section is a historic bottleneck that limits capacity on the southern East Coast Main Line and is the limiting factor for capacity on this section of the East Coast Main Line.^[10]

Facilities

The station footbridge connects to a footpath via a walkway and stairs in one direction, and to the first floor of the Howard Centre in the other direction, where ticket machines are available.^[11][12]

Welwyn Garden City was semi-refurbished by First Capital Connect during 2007, which saw improved lighting installed, new bus-shelter-style waiting rooms and improved toilets on each platform island. The refurbishments also saw the installation of ticket gates.^[13] There is also a station café located on platforms 1 and 2, reopened recently as The Garden Line.

The station has direct access to the Howard Centre. The shopping centre also incorporates the station's ticket office on the first floor. There are four ticket machines: three standard touch screen machines and one card-only machine. There are also help-points located within the station.^[14]

Towards the end of 2007, Welwyn Garden City was awarded Secure Station status, along with many other stations along the Great Northern route as part of a stations improvement programme. As part of this award, many additional cameras were installed.^[15]

Oyster card ticketing

Oyster cards are not accepted on journeys to Welwyn Garden City, but contactless payment has been available since late 2019. The train operating company, Govia Thameslink Railway, agreed to extend London Zonal Fares to include Potters Bar by September 2015 when they won the Great Northern franchise. More recently, Transport for London indicated that Welwyn Garden City and Potters Bar are two of the top four priority stations for the extension of London Zonal Fares and that introduction of the required software is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.^[16]

As at December 2024, Oyster cards are still not accepted at the station.^[12]

Services

All off-peak services at Welwyn Garden City are operated by Great Northern, using Class 387 and 717 electric multiple units.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[17][18]

• 2 tph to London King's Cross (semi-fast)
• 2 tph to Moorgate (all stations)
• 2 tph to Letchworth Garden City, of which 1 continues to Cambridge

Additional services, including a number of Thameslink-operated services to and from Sevenoaks, via Catford, run to and from the station during the peak hours.^[19]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hatfield		Great Northern Great Northern route Semi-Fast Services		Welwyn North
		Great Northern Great Northern route Stopping Services		Terminus
		Thameslink Thameslink Peak Hours Only
	Disused railways
Hatfield Line and station open		Great Northern Railway Dunstable Branch		Ayot Line and station closed
		Great Northern Railway Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway		Cole Green Line and station closed

Connections

The station is also served by several bus routes operated by Arriva Shires & Essex, Centrebus and Uno.^[20]