St Albans Branch Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St Albans Abbey Branch Line
Legend 6m 45ch  St Albans Abbey Closed line to Hatfield A414 road 5m 05ch  Park Street 4m 37ch  How Wood M25 motorway 3m 37ch  Bricket Wood M1 motorway 1m 63ch  Garston A41 road 0m 78ch  Level crossing 0m 75ch  Watford North West Coast Main Line northwards 0m 15ch  Watford Junction Watford DC Line southwards West Coast Main Line southwards

The St Albans Abbey Branch Line is a railway line from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. In its short 6.5 miles, the route goes through town and countryside.^[1] The service on the line is often referred to as the "Abbey Flyer", after St Albans Abbey.

[edit] History

The line was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 5 May 1858. It was the first railway to reach the town of St Albans,^[2] which was conferred with city status in 1877.^[3]

Originally, there were just two intermediate stations, as follows:

• Bricket Wood
• Park Street

In 1910 a further station was opened, at Callowland. This was later renamed Watford North.

In 1924, the terminus at St Albans had a name change to St Albans Abbey. This was done to distinguish it from the Midland Railway main line station (known as St Albans City), which was opened in 1868.

The LNWR station was also served by a branch of the Great Northern Railway from Hatfield.

In 1966 a sixth station was added to the line at Garston.

In 1988 a seventh station was added to the line at How Wood to coincide with the electrification of the 6.5-mile single-track route at 25 kV AC overhead.

[edit] The line today

[edit] Operations

Passenger services are currently operated by London Midland as of 11 November 2007.

The service is a pay train and all stations between Watford North and St Albans Abbey are unstaffed, so any ticket can be bought on the train. If joining at Watford Junction, you will require a ticket before you join the train, otherwise you will have to pay full fare.

[edit] Traction

The service is operated using 25 kV AC voltage EMU's.

Normally, a Class 321/4 EMU is used, but a Class 313 unit is used if Class 321/4 is not available. On rare occasions a Class 150 diesel multiple unit has been substituted.

[edit] Signalling

Signalling on the line is simple - the line is operated under "One Train Working" (without Train Staff) rules, where only one train is allowed on the line at a time. Trains can be taken off the line into Watford Junction yard when required using a manual process, which takes some time.

There is an ABCL (automatic barrier crossing - locally monitored) level crossing outside Watford North. This crossing is operated by a manual plunger for trains towards St Albans, and by a treadle for trains towards Watford Junction.

[edit] Future trends

Since 1995, the Abbey Flyers Users Group (ABFLY)^[4] has been campaigning to secure the future of the line and encourage its growth as an important transport link.

As the Abbey Line, it was designated as a community rail line in July 2005, being one of seven intended pilots under the Community Rail Development Strategy^[5] by the Strategic Rail Authority - see the Abbeyline Community Rail Partnership^[6] website for more information.

The line will not come under the control of London Overground,^[7] but TfL have plans to take over the St Albans branch line in the future.^[8]

It has been suggested that TfL would install Oyster Card readers on the stations along the branch, and install a passing loop at Bricket Wood to enhance the service on the line^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] References