Watton-at-Stone  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| General information | |||||
| Location | Watton-at-Stone,District of East Hertfordshire England | ||||
| Coordinates | 51°51′25″N0°07′11″W / 51.8569°N 0.1198°W /51.8569; -0.1198 | ||||
| Grid reference | TL295192 | ||||
| Managed by | Great Northern | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | WAS | ||||
| Classification | DfT category E | ||||
| History | |||||
| Original company | London and North Eastern Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 2 June 1924 | Opened | ||||
| 10 September 1939 | Closed | ||||
| 17 May 1982 | Reopened | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  0.133 million | ||||
| 2020/21 | 42,870 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.114 million | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.142 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.159 million | ||||
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Watton-at-Stone railway station serves the village ofWatton-at-Stone inHertfordshire, England. It is 23 miles 72 chains (23.90 miles, 38.46 km) down the line fromLondon King's Cross[1] on theHertford Loop Line betweenHertford North andStevenage and is served by trains operated byGreat Northern.
According to the Watton-at-Stone Parish Council,[2] a proposal for a rail route between London and Stevenage was approved by Parliament in 1898, though construction did not begin until 1906. A single-track section through Watton-at-Stone opened on 4 March 1918, with the track later beingdualled.
The station saw its first passenger train run through on 6 February 1920, but did so only when a train was diverted from theEast Coast Main Line as the result of an accident. Scheduled passenger services of four trains per day started on 2 June 1924, stopping on request at Watton-at-Stone.
The station's life as a passenger service was short-lived however, and it closed just 15 years later on 10 September 1939, despite the famed locomotive engineerNigel Gresley's residency in the village.
The nationalisedBritish Railways considered reopening the station in the 1960s, but it was not until 1981 that a campaign to reopen the station gathered momentum. The bulk of the £120,000 costs were paid for byHertfordshire County Council and British Rail, but villagers and the parish council responded to a public appeal for funds, and together contributed £8,000. On 17 May 1982, a small crowd gathered to board the 06:23 service from Watton-at-Stone toMoorgate, the first passenger train to serve the village in almost 43 years.
All services at Watton-at-Stone are operated byGreat Northern usingClass 717EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[3]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Northern | ||||
| Historical railways | ||||
Line open, station closed | London and North Eastern Railway | Line and station open | ||
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In 1977, track in the vicinity of the then closed station was used byBritish Transport Films as a set to film the notoriouspublic information filmThe Finishing Line.[4] Using shock tactics to deter children from playing near railway lines, the film was staged as adream sequence of a parody schoolsports day with 'events' on and around the track. Local schoolchildren were drafted as actors. The film was broadcast on the nightlyNationwide TV show, and the liberal quantities ofstage blood and graphic depiction of injuries became a matter of some controversy.
