The Kent Downs line is a railway line between

Otford Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It lies on the River Darent, north of Sevenoaks. Otford's four churches are the Anglican Church of St Bartholomew in the village centre, the Otford Methodist C ...

and Ashford International in

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 adopted its current name in 2020, by the Kent Rail Partnership. It covers a large part of what was known as the Maidstone line which extended further from Otford to Swanley. This line diverged from the

Chatham Main Line The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London VictoriaQuail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is ...

at Swanley Junction, and proceeds down the Darent Valley line to Otford junction, Retrieved 12 January 2012 where the Darent Valley line, also known as the Bat & Ball line, divides towards . Whereas the line now known as Kent Downs, continues via Borough Green & Wrotham and Maidstone East to Ashford, where it joins the

South Eastern Main Line The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the ...

History

The line was built by 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 ...

from their first line (the Chatham Main Line). The final section to Ashford opened on 1 July 1884 and terminated at . There was initially no direct connection to the rival South Eastern Railway's existing station. Maidstone_line

Upon the creation of the

South Eastern and Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eas ...

in 1899, Ashford West was closed and services diverted to the former South Eastern Railway station. The line was electrified in 1939 (750 V DC third rail) to Maidstone East by the Southern Railway prior to World War Two. Electrification between Maidstone East and Ashford was completed in 1961 under the BR

1955 Modernisation Plan Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18� ...

. In 2020 the line from Ashford International to was adopted by the Kent Rail Partnership and this section was renamed the ''Kent Downs line''.

Infrastructure

Traction current is supplied at 750 volts DC via the

Third Rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

. The supply for this is overseen by Paddock Wood Electrical Control Room. Signalling is

Track Circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on a block of rail tracks to control railway signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind the t ...

Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

with multiple aspect colour light signals throughout, controlled by Maidstone East Signal Box. The line is double track throughout.

Services

Services on the line are run by Southeastern. Services run to

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named afte ...

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 ...

and Ashford, with some peak services to

London Blackfriars Blackfriars (), also known as London Blackfriars, is a London station group, central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), ...

. In the off-peak, there are one train per hour from Ashford International to

via Bromley South and

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2021 ce ...

stopping at all stations between Ashford and

and one train per hour from Maidstone East to

running semi-fast via Swanley and

London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...

. These services are operated by Class 375 and Class 377 EMUs.

Thameslink Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...

utilises the route between

and

on their

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

metro services via the Catford Loop and

Elephant and Castle Elephant and Castle is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The n ...

with two trains per hour running. Additional services through London will be introduced as part of the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the so ...

between

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and Maidstone East. As of June 2024, these services have not yet been introduced with no news about their future.

References

* {{Coord, 51.2778, 0.5228, type:landmark_region:GB-KEN_scale:500000, display=title Rail transport in Kent Transport in the Borough of Ashford Railway lines in South East England Standard gauge railways in England