Hayes & Harlington railway station

Hayes & Harlington is a railway station serving the west London districts Hayes and Harlington in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It is 10 miles 71 chains (17.5 km; 10.89 mi) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Southall and West Drayton.

Hayes & Harlington
Westbound view of the station's stopping service platforms
Hayes & Harlington
Location of Hayes & Harlington in Greater London
LocationHayes and Harlington
Local authorityLondon Borough of Hillingdon
Managed byTfL Rail[1]
Station codeHAY
DfT categoryD
Number of platforms5
Fare zone5
National Rail annual entry and exit
2015–16 3.955 million[2]
2016–17 3.845 million[2]
2017–18 3.805 million[2]
– interchange  58,681[2]
2018–19 4.203 million[2]
– interchange  63,309[2]
2019–20 4.405 million[2]
– interchange  65,264[2]
Other information
External links
WGS8451.502°N 0.4201°W / 51.502; -0.4201
 London transport portal

It has long operated as a minor stop on the Great Western main line and is at the start of a spur to Heathrow Airport, to and from which passenger trains operate since the early 21st-century building of the spur which benefits from a flyover junction.

The station is managed by TfL Rail in preparation for Crossrail. The Transport for London rail service will be re-branded as the Elizabeth line and the Elizabeth line service will open to Reading and Heathrow Airport (dates not yet confirmed).

History

Up freight west of Hayes & Harlington in 1962

The station is on the Isambard Kingdom Brunel-designed Great Western main line landscaped and laid from London Paddington to major towns in central and west Berkshire, Bristol, South Wales and with later direct additions to Birmingham and Taunton. The line was opened piecemeal; its first guise terminated on 4 June 1838 at a temporary Maidenhead station in Taplow to allow completion of the single-span brick high-level sounding arch over the Thames just west of that temporary halt. The station at Hayes opened in 1868[3] or 1864.[4]

From 1 March 1883, the station (then named Hayes) was served by District Railway services running between Mansion House and Windsor (central). The service was discontinued as uneconomic on 30 September 1885.[5][6]

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.

Description

The station has five platforms, four being through platforms and one being a terminus bay platform. Platforms 1 and 2 are only used during certain engineering works; 3 and 4 are for services (which are stopping services) to and from London, Heathrow Airport, Reading and Oxford; platform 5 is a bay terminus platform, which is used for half-hourly shuttle services to Paddington. Platform 5 is capable of holding an eight-car train; platforms 2, 3 and 4 can hold seven-car trains and platform 1 can hold five-car trains. Platforms 3 and 4 are currently being extended in preparation for Crossrail services that will begin operating from 2019.[7] All lines at Hayes & Harlington are electrified.[7] On platform 5 an alternative entrance exists leading to High Point Hayes which has Oyster Pay and Go readers, platforms 3 and 4 are connected by a bridge towards the west end to the functionalist triple-kiosk northern booking hall.

The station is a connection to a main east-west rail network for Greater London and north Surrey districts and an interchange for nearby stations and bus routes for Heathrow. The passenger halls have no ticket barriers accordingly ticket checks take place on a daily basis.

Airport Junction

Airport junction adjoins the station the junction of the short Heathrow Airport branch. For this reason, the lines through the station are electrified with 25 kilovolt A.C. overhead power from London Paddington to the airport – the main line to Reading has been electrified by c. early 2018 as part of a project to modernise the main line.

The junction itself, west of the station, consists of two 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 concrete flyover to clear (flyover) the up and down main lines. The construction permits London-bound electric trains to join the main line at the same time as westbound expresses serve the down main line.

Crossrail Station Rebuild

As of January 2020, work is commencing with structural changes to the station as part of the Crossrail redevelopment. The works are being carried out by contractor Hochtief. The new foot bridge is now in place and will eventually join up with the new station building. The east side subway access steps are currently being demolished, to be replaced by new steps which will be integral with the new forecourt.

Services

Heathrow Connect in the station platforms

Trains at Hayes & Harlington are operated by Great Western Railway and TfL Rail.

The Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:

The Sunday service is:

Oyster "pay as you go" can be used for journeys originating or ending at Hayes & Harlington.[8]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
West Drayton   Great Western Railway
Great Western Main Line
  Southall or Ealing Broadway
Crossrail
Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3   TfL Rail
Paddington – Heathrow Terminal 4
  Southall
West Drayton
  TfL Rail
Paddington – Reading
  Southall
Terminus
  TfL Rail
Paddington – Hayes & Harlington
  Southall
  Future development  
Preceding station   Crossrail   Following station
towards Reading
Crossrail
Elizabeth line
towards Abbey Wood
Crossrail
Elizabeth line
  Historical railways  
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
towards Windsor
District line
towards Mansion House

Crossrail

Class 345 unit standing at Platform 5

Hayes & Harlington will be served by Crossrail trains using new twin-bore main line diameter tunnels underneath central London which will surface west of Paddington station. Although beyond the core tunnel section, Hayes & Harlington will be provided with a frequent metro service across the capital to Docklands and Abbey Wood, replacing the current Great Western Railway service. The project also includes electrification of the slow lines along the Thames Valley as far as Reading, Crossrail's planned terminus.

Various alterations will be made by Network Rail to prepare the station for Crossrail:[9]

  • New station building
  • Four new lifts to provide step-free access
  • Platforms 1–4 extended
  • New 220-yard (200 m) bay platform 5 constructed (replacing existing bay)
  • New platform canopies to platform 4 and 5
  • Track work to widen the island platform 2 and 3 and to provide access to the new bay platform

Locale

Harlington is a green-buffered enlarged village whose south is the Bath Road which has major hotels as part of a cluster of Heathrow Airport Hotels the settlement merges into Hayes in the north which has two retail/regular commercial centres, the closer High Street area immediately adjoins the station and continues due north, a similar further hub is the Uxbridge Road found 1 12 miles (2.4 km) further to the north.

Connections

Buses serving the station are numbers 90, 140, 195, 278, 350, E6, H98, U4, U5, X140, N140 and school buses 696, 698. The letter abbreviations are for Ealing, Hounslow and Uxbridge.

References

  1. Station facilities for Hayes & Harlington
  2. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  3. MacDermot, E T (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. 1 (1833–1863) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
  4. Chronology of London Railways by H.V.Borley p. 62
  5. Rose, Douglas (December 2007) [1980]. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (8th ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-85414-315-0.
  6. 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.
  7. Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 2B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.
  8. "Oyster PAYG on National Rail" (PDF). National Rail Enquiries. 20 October 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009.
  9. "Crossrail Station Design Contract Awarded". Crossrail. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
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