Elstree & Borehamwood railway station


Elstree & Borehamwood railway station is a railway station in the town of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. It primarily serves Borehamwood as well as the nearby village of Elstree, to the south-west. The station is situated on the Midland Main Line, down the line from London St Pancras and is situated between to the south and to the north. Its three-letter station code is ELS.
Elstree & Borehamwood is also the first station down the line that is located outside the Greater London area; however, it is still within London's Travelcard zone area, and is located in Zone 6.
The station is served by Thameslink-operated trains on the Thameslink route.

History

In 1862:
On 22 June 1863, the Midland Railway Bill was passed:
Situated north of the Elstree Tunnels, it was built by the Midland Railway as simply "Elstree" in 1868 when it built its extension to St Pancras station. By the 1920s, it had been renamed Elstree and Boreham Wood station. It was modernised in 1959. The station was renamed from Elstree & Borehamwood to Elstree on 6 May 1974, but reverted to Elstree & Borehamwood by mid 1988.
A new footbridge and step-free lifts, installed under Network Rail's Access for All programme, opened on 1 October 2014 in order to make Elstree & Borehamwood entirely step-free.
The "London LOOP" walk passes close to the station on its way from Stanmore to High Barnet.
The station is a PlusBus destination where buses can be used from the station to the surrounding area by requesting a ticket to "Elstree & Borehamwood Plus Bus"

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is six trains per hour southbound to London Blackfriars, of which:
Northbound there are six trains per hour to St Albans, two of which continue to Luton. At weekends this is reduced to four trains per hour, two of which continue to Luton on Sundays.
Some evening services are extended to Bedford. Night services operate to Gatwick Airport, Three Bridges and Brighton.
East Midlands Railway InterCity services from Leeds, Sheffield and Leicester run through at high speed, but do not stop. Interchange with InterCity services can be made at Luton Airport Parkway or Luton and St Pancras International.

Former services

In March 2009, Southeastern and Thameslink began running some peak-hour trains from Sevenoaks to Luton. However, these services now terminate at Blackfriars.

Future

Additional trains from destinations across the larger Thameslink network started calling at the station from 2015, although the existing Sutton Loop trains will continue even though they were originally to have been withdrawn. As well as the Sutton trains, there are now also weekday services to Rainham in Kent.
In advance of the current franchisee taking on the route, a factsheet stated that from 2018 there would be an increase in stopping services to St. Albans on Sundays.

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