The Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership celebrates Railway 200
A nationwide rail anniversary celebration
2025 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, one of Britain’s great contributions to the world. The Abbey Line was the original rail link into St Albans from George Stephenson’s line at Watford.
The Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership is proud to confirm a range of activities and events to celebrate the anniversary.
Abbey Line Tales
The ‘Abbey Line Tales’ project is collecting feel-good stories and images about the Line – memories from the ‘good ol’ days’, present day tales and people’s hopes for the future. These will be shared on the web, on social media, at events and at the Abbey Line stations – Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey.
Email info@abbeylinecommunityrail.org.uk to submit your tale or find out more.
If you’re tech-savvy, you can submit your tale, images and even video online here
The Abbey Line video-short
We are also promoting our newly-produced video ‘short’ about the Abbey Line – or Abbey Flyer as it is commonly known.
St Albans-based film producer, Julie d’Adamo, who is normally jetting off around the world to film major sporting events said:
“It is always a pleasure to support local community groups with their creative ambitions. I hope this film helps to spread the word about the Line and the great work that the Community Rail Partnership is doing with local communities.”
The film will be shown before some of the main feature films at the Odyssey cinema in St Albans during Community Rail Week (19-25 May).
Click the play button to watch it here.
Later on in the year
The Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership will be attending Bricket Wood’s Armed Forces Day and the Cottonmill Gathering in St Albans in summer 2025.
As well as promoting the Line, local walks and sustainable travel, we are sponsoring the North London Society of Model Engineers’ miniature locomotive for everyone to ride-on for free!
Kate Swindells, who is the Partnership Officer, said:
“We are so excited to celebrate Railway 200 with passengers that already use the Abbey Line, and people in the surrounding communities. We want to convince more people to ‘Go Green By Train’, and give the Abbey Line a go.”
Find out more
Check out our dedicated Railway 200 webpage to view our Abbey Line Tales, updates and new activities.
