Hatfield railway station serves the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire, England. The station is managed by Great Northern. It is 17 miles 54 chains (28.4 km) measured from London King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line.[2]

Hatfield
Hatfield Location of Hatfield in Hertfordshire
Location	Hatfield
Local authority	Borough of Welwyn Hatfield
Grid reference	TL232087
Managed by	Great Northern
Station code	HAT
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	3
Accessible	Yes
National Rail annual entry and exit
2016–17	2.377 million[1]
2017–18	2.381 million[1]
2018–19	2.360 million[1]
2019–20	2.340 million[1]
2020–21	0.591 million[1]
Railway companies
Original company	Great Northern Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Northern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
7 August 1850 (1850-08-07)	Station opened
September 2013 (2013-09)	Station redevelopment began
17 November 2014 (2014-11-17)	Multi-storey Car Park opened
Other information
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51.764°N 0.216°W / 51.764; -0.216
London transport portal

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History

Hatfield was formerly the junction of two branch lines, both of which have now closed. The Hatfield and St Albans Railway closed to passenger traffic in 1951 as part of postwar economies brought in by the British Transport Commission.[3] The route of the line is now a public footpath, the Alban Way. Another railway ran to Dunstable North, and closed in 1965 under the Beeching Axe. The closure of the Dunstable North line has left Dunstable as one of the largest towns in England without a direct rail connection.

Station masters

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (March 2020)

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 which opened in the new station building. 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 lines 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 male/female toilets and a separate disabled toilet. Ticket barriers are in operation.

Services

During the daytime there is generally a half-hourly fast service to London King's Cross southbound and also every 15 minutes a stopping service to Moorgate Monday to Fridays and half-hourly on weekends.

Northbound there is a half-hourly service to Cambridge. There is also a stopping service to Welwyn Garden City on the same pattern as that to Moorgate (every 15 minutes weekdays, half-hourly weekends).

The station is also served by various buses operated by Arriva Shires & Essex, Centrebus and Uno.

Redevelopment

Hatfield Station was redeveloped in 2013—15 to include a new bus interchange and taxi rank, multi-storey car park, refurbished ticket office, three new retail units and step-free access to all platforms.[8]

Work on the project, which was to cost £9 million,[9] began in 2013 and was completed by the end of 2015.

The new multi-storey car park opened on 17 November 2014.[10]

Routes

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Potters Bar or Welham Green		Great Northern Great Northern stopping		Welwyn Garden City
Potters Bar		Thameslink London-Cambridge semi-fast		Welwyn Garden City
Disused railways
Lemsford Road Halt Line and station closed		London and North Eastern Railway Hatfield and St Albans Railway		Terminus

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.[11]
• October 2000 accident, when a GNER InterCity 225 train de-railed, killing four people and injuring 70.

Gallery

• 
  Hatfield railway station viewed from the public footbridge.
• 
  A Grand Central train speeds through Hatfield en route from Sunderland.
• 

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hatfield railway station.

External links