The original Stevenage railway station was built in 1850 by the Great Northern Railway, despite the apparent hostility towards the railway being built there at that time due to the inevitable decline it would cause to local coach businesses, which all ended shortly after the station was opened. In 1946, Stevenage became one of the first New Towns, which resulted in a new town centre. In 1973, the railway station was relocated south, within walking distance of the new town centre.
Facilities
The station has two separate ticket offices, but in practice, each sell each other's tickets. There are also seven ticket machines. There are toilets at street level and lifts from the station building to both platforms. The station also has automatic ticket barriers, which were installed by First Capital Connect shortly after it took over the route, as a revenue protection exercise, and to improve security at the station. There is a snack bar, at street level, and two coffee bars at platform level, with one per platform. The newsagent previously at street level closed in March 2014, pending the redevelopment of the station which has since been completed. Since December 2013, the previous train operator, First Capital Connect started refurbishing the station completely, introducing passenger lifts between platform and street level, and refurbishing the concourse area plus retail units. The works were due to be completed by April 2014, but were delayed. Since Great Northern took over the franchise in September 2014, these works have been completed. Both island platforms have indoor waiting rooms that were refurbished in May 2012 as part of a wider scheme to refurbish and add waiting rooms across the Great Northern Route, and there is also outdoor seating along the length of the platforms. The station is a short walk on a walkway from Stevenage Bus Station and is opposite a leisure complex that includes the Gordon Craig Theatre.
Services
Great Northern
Before May 2018, most of the trains serving Stevenage station were operated by Great Northern, lying on its Great Northern Route from London King's Cross to Peterborough and Cambridge. It was served by trains between London and Letchworth via Hertford North; these trains use Moorgate station in London. In May 2018 however, most Great Northern services were swapped with Thameslink services, and now the only Great Northern trains are two southbound departures per hour to Moorgate on Sundays only calling at all stations via Hertford North, and some weekday peak-hour trains between London King's Cross and. On weekdays, services to and are replaced by buses whilst construction work on the extra platform at the station is ongoing. The Sunday service is:
2 Great Northern trains per hour south to Moorgate via Hertford North, calling at all stations en route;
Stevenage is also served by some London North Eastern Railway services on the East Coast Main Line. During the day, there is an hourly service between London King's Cross and Leeds and an hourly service between King's Cross and Newark North Gate ; at other times there are also services to Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle. These services use platform 2 southbound and platform 3 northbound.
offer a very limited service, only calling at Stevenage on Sunday afternoons, 1 train northbound and 2 trains southbound. This service runs between King's Cross and Hull.
Thameslink services
New services were rolled out in 2018 under the Thameslink Programme. The East Coast Mainline/Great Northern routes, from Peterborough and Cambridge and stations in between, including Stevenage, became connected to Thameslink via the Canal Tunnels and destinations south of central London.
Southbound:
* 2 trains per hour to via,,, and. These services originate at.
* 2 trains per hour to . These services originate at either or.
Northbound:
* 4 trains per hour to via and. The semi-fast services originate at, while the stopping services originate at. One stopping train per hour extends to.
* 2 trains an hour to via. These services originate at.
Additional platform
Until May 2018 most weekday trains on the Hertford Loop Line were extended to Letchworth, as there is insufficient capacity to accommodate terminating trains at Stevenage. However, in 2018, Govia Thameslink Railway has cut back all services to start/terminate at Stevenage. To help alleviate the capacity problem, construction of an additional south-facing bay platform at Stevenage is in progress as of June 2020; this platform will allow Great Northern trains on the Hertford Loop Line to terminate here - similar to the arrangement at Welwyn Garden City - increasing capacity on both the Hertford Loop and the East Coast Main Line, and allow for an enhanced service frequency on both routes. Work on this new platform commenced during February 2019 and it is due for completion and commissioning in late summer 2020.
In May 2016 ORR gave the green light to a new open-access operator called East Coast Trains, which would operate services to Edinburgh Waverley via Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth. Services are planned to begin in 2021.
