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 Elizabeth line National Rail
Station entrance seen in May 2022
Hayes & Harlington is located in Greater London
Hayes & Harlington
Hayes & Harlington
Location of Hayes & Harlington in Greater London
LocationHayes
Local authorityLondon Borough of Hillingdon
Managed byElizabeth line[1]
OwnerNetwork Rail
Station code(s)HAY
DfT categoryD
Number of platforms5
AccessibleYes
Fare zone5
National Rail annual entry and exit
2019–20Increase 4.405 million[2]
– interchange Increase 65,264[2]
2020–21Decrease 1.355 million[2]
– interchange Decrease 22,200[2]
2021–22Increase 3.169 million[2]
– interchange Increase 52,734[2]
2022–23Increase 5.446 million[2]
– interchange  Increase 0.120 million[2]
2023–24Increase 7.765 million[2]
– interchange Increase 0.150 million[2]
Other information
External links
Coordinates51°30′07″N 0°25′12″W / 51.502°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 the Elizabeth line, with most services also provided by the Elizabeth line, and late night services provided by the Great Western Railway.

History

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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.

The booking office was replaced in 1961 with a building to a modern design erected on a concrete raft over the line.[7]

Description

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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 and during disruption on the relief lines; 3 and 4 are for services (which are stopping services) to and from London, Heathrow Airport, Reading and Oxfordshire; platform 5 is a bay terminus platform, which was 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 nine-car trains and platform 1 can hold five-car trains. Platforms 3 and 4 have been extended as part of Crossrail improvement works. All platforms are connected with a footbridge to the new station building as part of the new Crossrail station improvements, which include step-free access to all platforms, step-free access to Station Road and Station Approach/High Point Village.[8] All lines at Hayes & Harlington are electrified.[9]

Airport Junction

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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.

Services

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Heathrow Connect in the station platforms

Frequency

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As of the May 2023 timetable, the typical Monday to Friday off-peak Elizabeth line service is:[10]

Late night services are operated by the Great Western Railway, running westbound to Reading and Didcot Parkway, and eastbound to Paddington.[11]

Oyster "pay as you go" as well as contactless can be used for journeys originating or ending at Hayes & Harlington.[12]

Service table

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Preceding station   Elizabeth line Following station
Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 Elizabeth line
Southall
West Drayton
towards Reading
Southall
towards Abbey Wood
Preceding station   National Rail Following station
West Drayton   Great Western Railway
Late night services
Great Western Main Line
  Southall
Historical railways
Preceding station   London Underground Following station
West Drayton
towards Windsor
District line Southall

Upgrades for the Elizabeth line

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Various alterations were made by Network Rail to prepare the station for Elizabeth line services:[13]

  • 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

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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

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Buses serving the station are numbers 90, 140, 195, 278, 350, E6, H98, U4, U5, SL9, N140 and school buses 696, 698. The letter abbreviations are for Ealing, Hounslow, Uxbridge, SuperLoop and Night services.

References

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  1. ^ Station facilities for Hayes & Harlington
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Estimates of station usage". 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. Vol. 1 (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. ^ British Railways Magazine: Western Region Vol 12 No 6, page 176
  8. ^ "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Hayes & Harlington". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Elizabeth line timetable: 21 May to 9 December 2023" (PDF). Transport for London. 21 May 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  11. ^ "Great Western Railway - London to Slough, Maidenhead, Reading and Didcot Parkway (stopping services)" (PDF). 21 May 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  12. ^ "Oyster PAYG on National Rail" (PDF). National Rail Enquiries. 20 October 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009.
  13. ^ "Crossrail Station Design Contract Awarded". Crossrail. 17 May 2011. Archived from the original on 21 November 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
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