the watford and rickmansworth railway opened its line between and station via in 1862. the line was soon to be taken over by the london and north western railway (lnwr). in 1912, a branch line to was opened , with an intermediate station at . 70 years later, watford stadium station was created to serve vicarage road football ground for crowd control. prior to this, the nearest stations available to football fans were watford high street and watford junction. a direct transport connection from the stadium would enable football officials to keep fans of "away" teams separate from watford f.c. supporters and reduce instances of football hooliganism in watford town centre. the station acquired the nickname of "hooligan halt".