Rush Hour Trains at: Hitchin, ECML, 28/07/23

A superb evening session spent at Hitchin on the East Coast Mainline where we see plenty of services from London Northeastern Railway, Great Northern, Thameslink, Hull Trains and Grand Central.

Hitchin station was built in 1850 as one of the original stations along the East Coast Mainline when the tracks were first layed. The same year saw Hitchin become a junction station when the a line to Royston was built and a year later was extended towards Shepreth. There was a line running from Hitchin to Bedford and for a while was running very successfully, but when the Midland Railway built a line from Bedford to London via Luton the Hitchin branch eventually became a branch line and was starting to lose money because passengers were taking the train from London St Pancras. Eventually the line was shut completely in 1961. The embankment is still there as it now carries a single stretch of track for trains that use the East Coast Mainline for Letchworth Garden City.

The line was operated by the Great Northern Railway to start with before they became a part of the LNER, with the rest as they say is history. Before stevenage was opened Hitchin was served by Intercity services.

When First Capital Connect operated services along the East Coast Mainline they installed new safety features at the station including new lighting, New CCTV camera's and automatic ticket barriers, this in turn gave the station a Secure Station Status.

My next rush hour film will be from Crewe on the West Coast Mainline.

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