Charing railway station serves the village of

Charing Charing () is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. It is down the line from . The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by Southeastern. The ticket office is staffed only during part of the day; at other times a

PERTIS In the Ticket (admission), ticketing system of the Rail transport in Great Britain, British rail network, a Permit to Travel provisionally allows passengers to travel on a train when they have not purchased a ticket in advance and the ticket offi ...

'permit to travel' machine, located outside the station building on the 'down' side, suffices. The next station eastwards (towards Ashford) used to be Hothfield; however, it was closed in 1959, although it remained a 'request' stop for railway staff throughout the 1960s.

History

Charing railway station building and car park in 2009

The station was opened on 1 July 1884, as part of the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England. It was created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through Lond ...

(LCDR) extension to of the 1874 line to Maidstone, which itself was a branch off the LCDR's Sevenoaks branch of 1862, which joined the LCDR mainline of 1840 at Swanley. In the wake of 1955

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

Modernisation plan, the "Kent Coast Electrification" scheme saw the suburban electrification of the previous Southern Railway extended from Maidstone East through to Ashford. The goods yard comprised five sidings on the down side and one on the up side. It was taken over for military use during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Electrification also saw the addition of a footbridge, but by 16 May 1964 freight operations ceased. Charing's signal box closed on 14 April 1984, when the upgraded Maidstone East Panel took control of the whole line.

Services

Charing railway station platforms in 2009

All services at Charing are operated by Southeastern using and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to Additional services, including trains to and from

London Charing Cross Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a London station group, central London railway terminus between the Strand, London, Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South ...

call at the station during the peak hours.

References

;Sources * *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charing Railway Station Transport in the Borough of Ashford Railway stations in Kent DfT Category E stations Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1884 establishments in England