Gravesend railway station

Coordinates: 51°26′28.74″N 0°22′0.09″E / 51.4413167°N 0.3666917°E

Gravesend
A London St Pancras to Faversham class 395 high speed train arrives at Platform 2 Gravesend
Location
Place	Gravesend
Local authority	Borough of Gravesham
Grid reference	TQ645740
Operations
Station code	GRV
Managed by	Southeastern
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2009/10	2.502 million
2010/11	2.647 million
– Interchange	43,815
2011/12	2.706 million
– Interchange	63,462
2012/13	2.646 million
– Interchange	65,872
2014/15	2.772 million
History
Key dates	Opened 30 July 1849
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Gravesend from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Auto-train for Allhallows-on-Sea in 1959

View of new footbridge and lifts at Gravesend Railway Station from Platform 2

Looking coast bound showing Platform 0 (far right), Platform 1 (right) and Platform 2 (left).

Coast bound view of Gravesend station from the new footbridge.

Gravesend railway station serves the town of Gravesend in north Kent; train services are operated by Southeastern. The station is 24 miles (38 km) from London Charing Cross. As of the Christmas period 2013 a major overhaul of the lines and platforms changed the four line, two platform layout into a three line, three platform layout.

History

The first railway to arrive in Gravesend was the Gravesend & Rochester Railway (G&RR) who had purchased the Thames and Medway Canal and its tunnel between Strood and Higham. The G&RR ran the first train to the then terminus at Gravesend (adjacent to the Canal Basin) on 10 February 1845. On 30 July 1849 the line was extended to North Kent East Junction on the South Eastern Railway (SER) and thence to London Bridge.

There was a second Gravesend station (later known as Gravesend West) opened by SER's rivals, London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). It was the end of a branch off the LCDR's main line and it allowed access to Victoria. journey times were uncompetitive and when the two companies merged in 1899, the branch was soon relegated to a secondary line and closed in 1968.

High speed HS1 services to London St Pancras International were introduced in December 2009 and proved highly successful. The station is now seen as a major interchange for metro and high speed services. There is far greater customer patronage for high speed services to St Pancras from Gravesend in comparison to nearby Ebbsfleet International, where usage is considered modest at best. This might be due (in part) to the sizeable London-bound commuter population in and around Gravesham, as opposed to domestic passenger use at Ebbsfleet, from elsewhere in North West Kent. Additionally services between Maidstone West and London St Pancras have since been added to SouthEastern's High Speed route, which stop at Strood and Gravesend prior to joining the high speed lines at Ebbsfleet.

In 2013 a £19 million overhaul of the station, platforms and lines involved the demolition of a former water tank base on the southern platform of the station (Platform 1 at this time), the installation of a new lift/stair bridge complex towards the western end of the station, the removal of the early 20th century footbridge that spanned the lines close to the ticket halls and a major remodelling of the lines and platforms.^[1]

The station's track layout was substantially altered in December 2013. This was primarily for extending the current platforms to accommodate 12 coach trains as opposed to the previous 10 coach limit. Platform 1 has been extended and converted to a London facing bay platform and renumbered as Platform '0'. A new single face central Platform 1 is located on the site of what was the former up 'through' road. Services from Medway and Faversham, including London bound high speed trains use this platform. This new platform has bi directional workings and capability. Platform 2 remained numbered as '2', however, it lost its turnback capability and thus caters solely for coast bound services. Services terminating at Gravesend from London Charing Cross or London Cannon Street stations terminate on Platform 0.

The previous historic but narrow central footbridge, has been replaced with a large sheltered bridge with lifts, at the London end of the station and serving all three platforms.

Future

In December 2008, the local authority for Gravesend (Gravesham Council), was formally requested by Crossrail and the Department for Transport, to sanction the revised Crossrail Safeguarding. This safeguarding provides for a potential service extension, from the current south of Thames terminus at Abbey Wood, to continue via the North Kent Line to Gravesend station. The Crossrail route extension from Abbey Wood to Gravesend and Hoo Junction, remains on statute. With current services from Gravesend to London Bridge, Waterloo East and London Charing Cross being supplemented by highspeed trains from the end of 2009 to St Pancras, the potential in having Crossrail services from central London, London Heathrow, Maidenhead and/or Reading, terminating at Gravesend, would not only raise the station to hub status but greatly contribute towards the town's regeneration.

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is:

Typical off-peak services are:

• 2tph to London St Pancras via Ebbsfleet International and Stratford International
• 2tph to London Charing Cross via Dartford and Sidcup
• 2tph to London Charing Cross via Dartford, Woolwich Arsenal and Lewisham
• 2tph to Gillingham (Kent)
• 2tph to Faversham, of which 1tph is extended to Margate, Ramsgate, Deal and Dover Priory, Ebbsfleet International and London St Pancras
• 4tpd using Class 395 Javelin units operate to St Pancras and Maidstone West via Strood.^[2]

References

1. http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/news/latest-news/gravesend-station-improvement-unlocks-capacity-improvements-in-kent/
2. "High-speed trains start from Maidstone". Kent Messenger Group. Retrieved 23 May 2011.

External links

• Train times and station information for Gravesend railway station from National Rail