Welwyn Garden City railway station

Welwyn Garden City railway station serves the town of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. The station is approximately 20 mi north of London Kings Cross on the East Coast Main Line. Welwyn Garden City station is managed and served by First Capital Connect.

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.

A halt named Welwyn Garden City Halt opened on 1 September 1920, shortly after the town was incorporated; this was on the now defunct Luton/Dunstable branch line, 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; Welwyn Garden City Halt was closed at the same time. 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).

When the Howard Centre shopping centre was opened in October 1990, the original ticketing hall was demolished. It is now inside the Howard Centre with steps linking down to the original bridge and then platforms.

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

Facilities
Welwyn Garden City was refurbished by First Capital Connect during 2007, which saw new lighting being installed and new waiting rooms and toilets on each platform, using existing buildings. The refurbishments also saw the installation of Automatic Ticket Gates and two new platform shelters further along the platforms from the canopies. There is also a station buffet/bar located on Platforms 1 and 2.

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 5 ticket machines; 3 standard touch screen machines, one "FAST-TICKET" machine and one "Credit/Debit Card Only" machine. There are also telephones and help-points throughout the station.

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 by First Capital Connect. As part of this award, many additional cameras were installed at the station.

Services
Monday to Saturdays, trains operate half-hourly on First Capital Connect's "London-Cambridge/Peterborough" line towards London Kings Cross and hourly towards Cambridge and Peterborough respectively. On Sundays there is an hourly service southbound to London and northbound to Cambridge.

Welwyn Garden City is a terminus for First Capital Connect's "London - Welwyn line" stopping service. Trains depart every 20 minutes to Moorgate in London on weekdays and outside of these times every half hour to London Kings Cross. A rail flyover was constructed south of the station to allow the Moorgate trains to arrive and depart from Platform 4. There is also a limited stop service to London King's Cross at peak times, notably just after 7am where a train runs non-stop to Finsbury Park and 8am where the next stop is Potters Bar.

The station is also served by various buses operated by both Arriva and Centrebus.

After the completion of the Thameslink Programme in 2018 a 2tph service from Maidstone East to Welwyn Garden City is proposed.

Station layout
The sidings at Welwyn Garden City consist of 6 bays, 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.

The carriage sidings, just north of the station currently, consist of 9 sidings with the 8-car 317/365's able to use only 5 of the sidings because if they used the other sidings, they would block the siding next to it.

Platforms 2 (southbound) & 3 (northbound) are in regular use for services to/from London Kings Cross, Peterborough and Cambridge. Platform 3 is also used for terminating trains for the carriage sidings and where trains from the carriage sidings form into passenger service - a few southbound trains start from here at peak times rather than platform 4 as they can access the flyover onto the Up Slow line.

Platform 4 is used for services to/from Moorgate, also used for terminating trains for the carriage sidings and where trains from the carriage sidings form into passenger service.

Platform 1 (the outer face of the up island) sees only occasional use as it has no direct access from the carriage sidings for originating southbound trains (ECS sets must either shunt across the flyover or arrive empty from Letchworth or Hitchin).

The West exit off the passenger footbridge leads into the Howard centre where the main station ticket office is located on the first floor while the East exit leads to the Broadwater industrial area.