Hayes and Harlington railway station

Not to be confused with Hayes railway station or Harlington railway station.
Hayes & Harlington
Hayes & Harlington

Location of Hayes & Harlington in Greater London
Location Hayes
Local authority London Borough of Hillingdon
Managed by First Great Western
Station code HAY
Number of platforms 5
Fare zone 5
National Rail annual entry and exit
2004–05   1.230 million[1]
2005–06 1.239 million[1]
2006–07 1.949 million[1]
2007–08 2.033 million[1]
2008–09 1.847 million[1]
List of stations Underground · National Rail
External links Departures • Layout
  Facilities • Buses
London Transport portal
UK Railways portal

Hayes and Harlington railway station is a railway station in Hayes and Harlington in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

Contents

History

It is on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's former Great Western Main Line running out of London Paddington to the Thames Valley, Bristol, South Wales and the West Country. The line was opened on 4 June 1838, initially running to a temporary Maidenhead to allow completion of the famous brick arch bridge over the River Thames just west of the station. The station at Hayes opened in 1868.[2]

From 1 March 1883, the station (then named Hayes) was served by District Railway services running between Mansion House and Windsor. The service was discontinued as uneconomic after 30 September 1885.[3][4]

Description

Although a busy station there are no automatic ticket barriers, but manual ticket checks take place on a daily basis.

Airport Junction

Hayes is the location of the junction for the recently completed Heathrow Airport branch. For this reason, the lines through the station are electrified with 25kV a.c. overhead power, although they only continue along the Airport branch — the main line to Reading is not yet electrified.

The junction itself consists of two ground level high-speed turnouts from the main lines, the 'down' (away from London) line curving away to the left towards the Airport and the 'up' (towards London) line passing over a major concrete flyover construction to clear the up and down main lines before joining the up main line on the flat. This arrangement permits a London-bound electric train to join the main line from Heathrow at the same time as a Reading-bound train passes along the down main line – if there were simply a flat junction one of the trains would have had to be held to allow the other to pass.

Services

Services at Hayes and Harlington are provided by FirstGroup plc. First Great Western run stopping services and fast services in both directions between Paddington and Reading stations. Heathrow Connect services are jointly run with BAA plc ( who built the tunnel and airport junction to the airport) and FirstGroup (providing a fast electric main line alternative to the Piccadilly Line for passengers travelling to Heathrow Airport). Heathrow Connect replaced the stopping services under First Great Western Link between Hayes & Harlington and London Paddington. This has allowed for speedy journey times in the Greater London Area.

The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from London Paddington to Reading and Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow Airport.

As of October 2008, Oyster "pay as you go" can be used for journeys originating or ending at Hayes & Harlington.[5]

Transport Links

London bus routes 90, 140, 195, 350, E6, H98, U4 and U5.

History

The film "Trains at Hayes Station" showing trains passing through the station with stereophonic sound was filmed from the roof of the defunct Aeolian pianola factory just north of the station. The factory had been purchased by HMV when the pianola company had collapsed owing to fraud and technological obsolescence. The film is almost the first demonstration of stereophonic sound to accompany moving pictures, an invention of Alan Blumlein.

Future plans

In the future, Hayes and Harlington will become one of the stations on London's planned Crossrail route, the new twin-bore main line diameter tunnels underneath central London which will surface west of Paddington station. Although beyond the core tunnel section, Hayes and Harlington will be provided with a frequent metro service across the capital to Docklands, east London and Shenfield, replacing the current First Great Western service. The project also includes electrification of the slow lines along the Thames Valley as far as Maidenhead, Crossrail's planned terminus.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Station usage". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. 30 April 2010. http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529. Retrieved 17 January 2011.  Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  2. ^ MacDermot, E T (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. 1 (1833-1863) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway. 
  3. ^ Rose, Douglas (December 2007) [1980]. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (8th ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 978 1 85414 315 0. 
  4. ^ Day, John R.; Reed, John (2008) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (10th ed.). Harrow: Capital Transport. p. 26. ISBN 978 1 85414 316 7. 
  5. ^ "Oyster PAYG on National Rail". National Rail Enquiries. 2008-10-20. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/london/OysterPAYG.pdf. 

External links

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Southall   First Great Western
Great Western Main Line		   West Drayton
  Heathrow Connect
Paddington-Heathrow		   Heathrow Central
    Future Development    
Preceding station   Crossrail   Following station
towards Maidenhead
 Crossrail
Line 1
Crossrail
Line 1
    Historical services    
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
towards Windsor
 District line