Great Western Coffee Shop

In the past, GNER planned a new M25 parkway at Hadley Wood on the ECML.

Would one at Iver on the GWML be useful? It could take the pressure off people travelling into London or Reading to board HSTs and would be useful for commuters.

But it would slow the trains down (unless the IEPs could compensate) and would compromise the Green Belt.

It didn't get built though, in the 9 or so years that GNER held the franchise. Though given the nature of the community at HW, there was never any chance that it would have been allowed - a decent bit of research would soon have

But it's an interesting question. I wouldn't be in favour, because there are already too many stops, and I'm not convinced that once people have circumnavigated the M25 (probably the worst bit of the journey), they won't just carry on down the M4. Kings Langley is another station that's very close to the M25, and would avoid the trek into Watford for northbound travellers. 

Unfortunately, Kings Langley only gets 4 trains per hour (two up , two down), and after about 7am all the north-bounds terminate at Tring.

Not that I've got anything against Tring - I prefer to change there rather than at Hemel Hempstead on the way home in the evening.

I'm old enough to remember the detailed plans for just such a parkway in the 70's - if not the 1960's. If Gerard Fiennes had had his way it would have been built before Bristol Parkway.

On paper, it sounds like a good idea now I come to think about it. Especially if it were to link in to Heathrow.
But the time penalty would be bad (especially considering that HSTs will have to stop at Old Oak Common).

For the ECML, Stevenage acts as a North London Parkway, I suspect.

The proposed GNWR originally said that they wanted to stop at "Kings Langley Parkway".