Tring  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| General information | |||||
| Location | Tring,Dacorum England | ||||
| Coordinates | 51°48′01″N0°37′21″W / 51.8004°N 0.6225°W /51.8004; -0.6225 | ||||
| Grid reference | SP951122 | ||||
| Owned by | Network Rail | ||||
| Managed by | London Northwestern Railway | ||||
| Platforms | 5 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | TRI | ||||
| Classification | DfT category C2 | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 16 October 1837 (1837-10-16) | ||||
| Original company | London and Birmingham Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | London and North Western Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | London Midland and Scottish Railway | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  0.819 million | ||||
| Interchange |  1,445 | ||||
| 2020/21 | 0.118 million | ||||
| Interchange | 312 | ||||
| 2021/22 | 0.425 million | ||||
| Interchange | 771 | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.553 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.673 million | ||||
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Tring railway station is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) outside the market town ofTring, close to theGrand Union Canal but actually nearer to the village ofAldbury inHertfordshire,England. Situated on theWest Coast Main Line, the station is now an important marshalling point for commuter trains from here for most stations toLondon Euston.
There are five full length (12-car) platforms, with one side platform and two islands. To the east of the station are some south facing sidings connecting to the slow lines. Platforms 1 & 2 are the fast-line platforms, platforms 3 & 5 are the slow-line platforms and platform 4 is used by starting and terminating services to/from Euston and additional through trains southbound.
Tring station was opened by theLondon and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) on 16 October 1837 when the L&BR extended its line out of London beyondBoxmoor to Tring. The first train to Tring ran from Primrose Hill at 9:00 am on 16 October 1837, reaching Tring at 10:10 am. On 15 November 1844,Queen Victoria andPrince Albert made their first train journey north from Euston, reaching Tring in 52 minutes where the train stopped to take on water. Despite rain, the appearance of the royal train attracted crowds of farm labourers and local children, to the Queen's delight. It is reported that after this stop, Victoria asked that the speed of her train be reduced.[1]
The L&BR was constructed by the railway engineerRobert Stephenson. He originally planned a route which would have taken the new railway to the east of Tring, but vociferous opposition from influential local landowners such as theEarl of Essex,Earl of Clarendon,Lord Brownlow and SirAstley Cooper delayed the project and forced the route to be changed before parliamentary approval could be obtained, with the result that Tring railway station had to be sited some distance from the town.[1][2] The remote location of Tring station is sometimes wrongly attributed to objections which were said to have been made byLord Rothschild to protect his land in Tring; in fact, Lord Rothschild was not born until 1840, three years after the railway had opened and the Tring lands were only acquired by his fatherLionel in 1872. He did, however, object to a much later plan to build a steam tramway between Tring Station andAylesbury. Tring station's distance from the town would have been greater had the L&BR placed the station at Pitstone Green, some three miles further north, as it originally planned to do. The preferred location at Pendley required purchasing land from theComte d'Harcourt, another landowner reluctant to admit the railways to his estate, and he demanded such an exorbitant price that the L&BR selected a cheaper but less convenient plot of land. The townspeople of Tring were so enthusiastic for a railway that in 1837 they raised funds to bridge the difference in price between what the Company was prepared to pay and the price demanded by the Harcourt estate.[1] They also supported the construction of a new road to the station and according to the 1839 issue of theRailway Times, "As soon as the Company had determined upon making it a first class station (where every train stops), the inhabitants came forward in a very spirited manner, and at their own expense formed a new road direct to the town".[3]
Tring station was originally intended as a destination of a branch of theMetropolitan Railway (MR). A short section of the branch fromChalfont and Latimer toChesham was built in 1887–89 before the MR chose to construct an alternative route across the Chilterns viaAylesbury instead. Although the MR continued to buy land between Chesham and Tring for some years after Chesham station opened, the route was never extended further and today Chesham remains as a branch line terminus of Transport for London'sMetropolitan line.[4][5]
Immediately north of the station, the line entersTring Cutting, which allows it to cross theChiltern Hills.[6]
Tring lies on a major commuter route into central London and most West Coast Main Line train services run directly into London Euston. It is the terminus of many slower trains out of Euston and platform 4 provides a turnaround for these trains.
All services at Tring are operated byLondon Northwestern Railway.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[7]
During the peak hours, a number of additional services betweenBletchley and London Euston call at the station.
A number of early morning and late evening services are extended beyond Milton Keynes Central to and fromNorthampton andBirmingham New Street.
On Sundays, the station is served by a half-hourly service between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central.
In June 1997,Connex South Central began operating services betweenGatwick Airport andRugby via theBrighton andWest London Lines that called at Tring withClass 319s.[8][9] It was cut back to terminate atMilton Keynes in December 2000 before being withdrawn in May 2002 due to capacity constraints on the West Coast Main Line while it was upgraded.
Southern reintroduced the service in February 2009 withClass 377s operating initially operating fromBrighton to Milton Keynes before being curtailed at its southern end atSouth Croydon and laterClapham Junction.[10][11] In May 2022, Southern cut the service back to terminate atWatford Junction, thus ceasing to serve Tring.[12]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheddington towardsMilton Keynes Central | London Northwestern Railway London–Milton Keynes | Berkhamsted towardsLondon Euston | ||
| Terminus | ||||
| Former services | ||||
| Southern | ||||
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2022) |
In theLondon & South East Rail Utilisation Strategy document published byNetwork Rail in 2011, Tring was identified as a terminus of a possible northern extension of theCrossrail lines now under construction in central London.[13] The report recommends the addition of a tunnel in the vicinity of the proposed station atOld Oak Common connecting the Crossrail route to the West Coast Mainline. The diversion of rail services through central London would enable a direct link from stations such as Tring toWest End stations such asTottenham Court Road and would alleviate congestion at Euston station; Crossrail services currently planned to terminate atPaddington due to capacity constraints would also be able to continue further west, allowing for a more efficient use of the line. This proposal has not been officially confirmed or funded, although an announcement made in August 2014 by the transport secretaryPatrick McLoughlin indicated that the government was actively evaluating the possibility of extending Crossrail as far as Tring and Milton Keynes Central.[14]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said the £14.8bn scheme could be extended into [...] the Hertfordshire stations of Tring, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Watford Junction could be added to the network via a new rail link between Old Oak Common and the west coast mainline, allowing commuters direct access to the City and Canary Wharf.
