Stevenage railway station

History

The original Stevenage railway station was built in 1850 by the Great Northern Railway, despite the apparent hostility towards the railway being built there at that time due to the inevitable decline it would cause to local coach businesses, which all ended shortly after the station was opened. In 1946, Stevenage was one of the first communities selected to become a 'New Town' as part of the governments New Towns Act, which resulted in a new town centre. In 1973, the railway station was relocated 73 chains (1.47 km) south, within walking distance (220 yd, 200 m) of the new town centre.

Facilities

The station has two separate ticket offices (Great Northern and Virgin Trains East Coast), but in practice, each sell each other's tickets. There are also seven ticket machines. There are toilets at street level (but not on the platforms) and lifts from the station building to both platforms.

The station also has automatic ticket barriers, which were installed by First Capital Connect (the previous train operator) shortly after it took over the route, as a revenue protection exercise and to improve security at the station. There is a snack bar, at street level, and two coffee bars at platform level, with one per platform. The newsagent previously at street level closed in March 2014, pending the redevelopment of the station which has since been completed. Since December 2013, the previous train operator, First Capital Connect started refurbishing the station completely, introducing passenger lifts between platform and street level, and refurbishing the concourse area plus retail units. The works were due to be completed by April 2014, but were delayed. Since Great Northern took over the franchise in September 2014, these works have been completed.

Both island platforms have indoor waiting rooms that were refurbished in May 2012 as part of a wider scheme to refurbish and add waiting rooms across the Great Northern Route, and there is also outdoor seating along the length of the platforms.

The station is a short walk on a walkway from Stevenage Bus Station and is opposite a leisure complex that includes the Gordon Craig Theatre.

Great Northern

Most of the trains serving Stevenage station are operated by Great Northern, lying on its Great Northern Route from London King's Cross to Peterborough and Cambridge. It is also served by trains between London and Letchworth via Hertford North; these trains use Moorgate station in London. Great Northern services mainly use the outer faces of each island platform - platform 1 for Kings Cross and Moorgate and platform 4 for Letchworth, Cambridge and Peterborough. During weekday rush hours & at weekends some trains to/from Hertford North also terminate & start from platform 4.

The Monday–Saturday off-peak service is:

Virgin Trains East Coast

Stevenage is also served by some Virgin Trains East Coast services on the East Coast Main Line. During the day, there is an hourly service between London King's Cross and Leeds and an hourly service between King's Cross and Newark North Gate (extended to York every 2 hours); at other times there are also services to Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle. These services use platform 2 southbound and platform 3 northbound.

Hull Trains

Hull Trains offer a very limited service, only calling at Stevenage on Sunday afternoons, 1 train northbound and 2 trains southbound. This service runs between King's Cross and Hull.

Future Thameslink services

After the Thameslink Programme is complete (scheduled for 2018), Great Northern services will be extended to destinations south of central London. In September 2016, a proposed timetable was released; the planned services are:

As a result of this, all of the above services will be re-branded as Thameslink. There will also be some additional limited-stop services between London King's Cross (not extended through central London) and Peterborough during rush hour and in the evenings; these services will remain under the Great Northern brand.

Prior to 2016, it was proposed to run the stopping Cambridge services to/from Tattenham Corner instead, however this proposal has since been cancelled, in favour of Maidstone East.

Additional platform

Govia Thameslink Railway (the owner of Great Northern) have long aspired to terminate all services on the Hertford Loop Line at Stevenage, rather than have them continue through to Letchworth. Currently, services on the line do terminate here on weekends, however on weekdays most are extended to Letchworth due to insufficient capacity to accommodate terminating trains at Stevenage. To help alleviate this problem, there is a proposal to build an additional south-facing bay platform at Stevenage; this platform would allow Great Northern trains on the Hertford Loop Line to terminate here, which would increase capacity on both the Hertford Loop and the East Coast Main Line, and allow for an enhanced service frequency on both routes.

East Coast Trains

In May 2016 ORR gave the green light to a new open-access operator called East Coast Trains, which would operate services to Edinburgh Waverley via Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth. Services are planned to begin in 2021.