Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway

Even when the competing direct line from Luton to London was opened, the route via Hatfield held its own for some time.

A shorter line simply reaching Dunstable from Leighton seemed to be less difficult, and as the scheme had the support of the London and Birmingham Railway, proposals were submitted to Parliament.

The result that the Dunstable Railway Act[note 1] was given the Royal Assent on 30 June 1845, with capital of £50,000.

It was worked from the outset by the London and North Western Railway, and the new line was effectively the Dunstable branch of the LNWR and was purchased by that company on the opening of the line for the sum of £2,952[1][2][4][3] Luton was said at the time to be the largest town in England not connected to a railway or a canal.

[6][note 2] Local interests complained that they did not have a good transport system for their products, A meeting in Luton in 1845 resolved that the solution for their town was not a branch line giving a roundabout connection, but a London to Manchester main line railway via Luton.

This was an ambitious scheme that would be in competition with the LNWR and to some extent the Great Northern Railway for long distance traffic and for mineral business, and would certainly not be assisted by them.

It was authorised by the Great Northern Railway (Hertford, Hatfield and St. Albans Branch) Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict.

This was considered a preferable interchange for the branch, and the proposed north curve of the triangle was never built.

[16][17][12] It was operated jointly by the GNR and the Eastern Counties Railway, and there were some through bookings between their respective stations.

The GNR made it clear they would demand onerous conditions for the construction of the bridge, and some shareholders opposed the merger for that reason; however the opposition was voted down and the motion to merge the companies was carried, on 26 January 1858.

[5] The Amalgamation Bill obtained the Royal Assent on 28 June 1858, with combined capital of £185,000; it was to be called the Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway company.

The Hertford line was already in operation, having opened to goods traffic on 28 February 1858 (a Sunday) and a passenger service on Monday 1 March 1858.

[16][17][12][14] The Luton to Dunstable section was making better progress than before, and on 18 March 1858, Col Yolland of the Board of Trade visited for the inspection prior to passenger operation.

(The LNWR retained running powers Dunstable to Luton after the line was connected at the Welwyn end.

The section between Luton and Welwyn Junction opened for passenger and goods traffic on 1 September 1860, and was worked by the Great Northern Railway.

[14] The Great Northern Railway ran a commercially competitive service to London from Luton via Hatfield, notwithstanding the longer route and branch line alignment for part of the way.

It was closed on 1 September 1860 when the Welwyn Junction to Luton section of the Dunstable branch opened.

This refers to the northward spurs for both the Hertford and Luton lines, which had never been built; the "abandonment" is of the intention to make them.

[24] In the first years of the twentieth century, a number of railway companies tried out railmotors, single-coach passenger units with a small integrated steam engine.

These were useful on sparsely-trafficked lines, and generally had retractable steps to enable the use of cheap track-level "platforms" with minimal facilities.

[11] Writing in 1908, Goodman described the track layout from Hatfield to Welwyn Junction; the heavy and slow mineral traffic on the main line had caused the GNR to widen the line; there were six tracks: from east to west they were: Bradshaw for 1910 shows the passenger service had increased considerably; there were seven trains each weekday on the Leighton to Dunstable section; the station at Stanbridgeford was open, but marked "sig" (for calls by request) for most trains; there were ten trains throughout between Dunstable and Hatfield with seven (8 on Saturdays) in addition between Luton and Dunstable.

[26] In 1917 halt platforms were erected on both the Dunstable and Hertford branches, immediately north of Hunter's Bridge.

In November 1920 a footnote reference to a train in the timetable says "Calls at a Halt at Welwyn Garden City between Hatfield and Ayot'.

By August 1926, immediately prior to the opening of the present station, the 'Halt' was served by seventeen down and sixteen up trains per weekday, which indicates the growth of Welwyn Garden City.

At this time a train referred to in the timetable as the 'Garden City Express' left Kings Cross at 10.55 am and after calling at Finsbury Park ran non-stop to the 'Halt' arriving at 11.30 am.

Nameboards erected on the station were lettered Welwyn Garden City with no reference to its status as a Halt.

The new station included separate platform faces for Hertford and Dunstable branch trains.