Owing to its proximity to London, Redbourn became an important coaching station in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it was known as the "Street of Inns", with at least 25 pubs and inns at its peak. However the expansion of the railways in the 1840s sounded the death knell of stagecoaches. A branch railway line known as the Nickey Line, from Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden, passed through Redbourn. It opened on 16 July 1877 and closed in 1979. The route is now a public footpath and cycle path. The first bus service through the village started in 1908, though buses took some years to become established.