Harlow Town railway station

Harlow Town
265px Platform 3
Location
Place	Harlow
Local authority	Borough of Harlow
Coordinates
Grid reference	TL446112
Operations
Station code	HWN
Managed by	Abellio Greater Anglia
Number of platforms	4
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	1.667 million
2005/06	1.627 million
2006/07	1.653 million
2007/08	1.713 million
2008/09	1.667 million
2009/10	1.552 million
2010/11	1.543 million
2011/12	1.599 million
2012/13	1.690 million
2013/14	1.700 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1842 (1842)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Harlow Town from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

A Network SouthEast Class 317 at Harlow Town in the mid 1990s

Harlow Town railway station serves the town of Harlow in Essex, England. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.

History

The station was opened in 1842 as Burnt Mill railway station, to serve the small village of the same name.

In 1959-60 the station was totally rebuilt to serve the post-war new town of Harlow, to designs by Paul Hamilton with John Bicknell and Ian Fraser of the British Railways (Eastern Region) architects department (chief architect: HH Powell). Described by Pevsner as "low, crisp and entirely ungimmicky", its architectural quality was recognised in 1996 when it was made a Grade II listed building. The listing entry states "the Eastern Region Architect's Department was the most creative branch of British Railways, designing a number of powerful modern stations in conjunction with the Region's electrification. The new station for Harlow New Town was the flagship of this achievement. It is a building with powerful spatial qualities, of especial interest particularly for its architectural design".

On 13 July 1960, the station was renamed Harlow Town. Its status as a listed building has meant that alterations to conform with the DDA have had to be done sensitively to protect the original architectural conception.

Services

All services at the station are operated by the rail company Abellio Greater Anglia (an international part of Nederlandse Spoorwegen), although some are branded as Stansted Express. All services use Class 317 and Class 379 electric multiple units.

Typical hourly off-peak service pattern:

• 4tph to Liverpool Street (2 fast, 2 semi-fast)
• 2tph to Stratford (stopping)
• 2tph to Stansted Airport (1 fast, 1 stopping)
• 2tph to Cambridge (1 semi-fast, 1 stopping)
• 2tph to Bishops Stortford (1 semi-fast, 1 stopping)

(tph = trains per hour)

Stansted Express services take 33 minutes to Liverpool Street, calling at Tottenham Hale only, and takes 21 minutes to Stansted Airport.

The station today

The station has four platforms. Platform 2 is for services towards London Liverpool Street and Stratford. Platform 3 is for services towards Stansted Airport and Cambridge. Platforms 1 and 4 are used less frequently for slow trains and as a Waiting loop for freight trains from the aggregate terminal a mile down the line, they are however used by a number of peak starting/terminating services to/from Liverpool Street or Stratford and by a few through trains northbound and southbound. Currently all platforms accommodate 12 car trains although the longest currently used on the line is 8 car.

In December 2009 ticket barriers were installed at the station, to help reduce penalty fare evasion from the station. The platforms can accommodate 12 car trains.

References

A WAGN EMU travelling through Harlow Town station in 2001

External links

• Train times and station information for Harlow Town railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Roydon or Tottenham Hale		Abellio Greater Anglia West Anglia Main Line Slow		Harlow Mill or Terminus
Broxbourne or Tottenham Hale		Abellio Greater Anglia West Anglia Main Line Semi-Fast		Bishops Stortford or Terminus
Tottenham Hale		Stansted Express Liverpool Street-Stansted Airport (West Anglia Main Line)		Bishops Stortford or Stansted Airport or Stansted Mountfitchet