Funding for Croxley Rail Link Given Green Light

7:57pm Wednesday 18th January 2012 in Jamie McDougall's Blog Photograph of the Author By Jamie McDougall

Funding for the long awaited Croxley Rail Link has been agreed after years of planning.

The proposal is to close Watford Metropolitan Station altogether with the line being diverted from Croxley to Watford Junction. Between these two stops there will be two additional stations, Ascot road and Watford Hospital.

It is hoped the Croxley Rail Link will improve links between Watford and London. The aim of it is to improve transport links, increase the number of visitors to Watford town centre and boost the local economy. There will also be an extra station at Watford General Hospital due to the construction of a brand new health campus.

The new link will make it easier to travel in and around Watford whilst taking cars off the road which should result in less pollution! Another benefit of the proposed diversion is that 2,700 additional households will fall within an 800m catchment area of a station.

Although the feedback from people in the area is mostly positive, the proposed closure of the existing Metropolitan station in Watford has got some of the public worried. A twitter page called @SaveWatfordMet has been launched and over a thousand people have signed a petition against the closure.

The other main concern about the plans is that there will be heavy disruption due to the construction. Another worry is that with the removal of the current Watford met station, Cassiobury Park may now become isolated and will see an increase in crime in the park.

The scheme will be mostly funded by central government but is also being supported by local authorities in Hertfordshire. The completion date for the rail link is estimated to be 2016.

I will be keeping a close eye on this story as it develops.

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Comments(3)

jmgingerbeer says...
10:57am Fri 20 Jan 12

The claim that the new Croxley link improves access to London is highly dubious. The alternate route via Harrow & Wealdstone to Euston is much faster. There would be more sense in running some 2 carriage tube trains via this link to Ricky and Chesham, if there is spare capacity.

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Jamie McDougall says...
11:35pm Sun 22 Jan 12

I understand your point but that fast train will still be running I assume, so if people want a direct train to London then they can use that train. The Croxley Rail Link will make it easier to travel around Watford itself and will help the residents travel into London who do not live near Watford Junction at the moment.

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TRT says...
3:25pm Tue 24 Jan 12

An effect which could equally well have been achieved by restoring the Wiggenhall Road over-bridge and running a LOROL service to Ascot Road, saving the expense and eye-sore of the viaduct at Two Bridges and the closure of Watford Met station.

The only advantage to joining the Metropolitan to the CRL is to allow east-west rail travel into Watford High Street. In terms of providing fast rail access to London, the case is questionable as you can change to a fast train at Moor Park as it is.

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