The Maidstone line is a railway line between Swanley, Maidstone and Ashford in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England.
The line diverges 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 i ...
at Swanley Junction and proceeds down the Darenth valley to Otford junction
[ Retrieved 2012-01-12] (where the Bat & Ball line
divides towards ). It continues via
Borough Green & Wrotham and
Maidstone East
Maidstone East railway station is one of three stations in the central area of Maidstone, Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains o ...
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 C ...
. In 2020 the line from Ashford International to
Kemsing was adopted by the Kent Rail Partnership and this section was renamed The Kent Downs Line
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 created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and nor ...
from their first line (the Chatham Main 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 Easter ...
the original Ashford terminus was closed in 1899 and services diverted to the
South Eastern Railway's Ashford 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� ...
.
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 railway ...
. 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 rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters.
Principles and operation
The basic principle behind 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 Ashford IECC.
The line is double track throughout.
Services
Services on the line are run by
Southeastern.
Services run to
London Victoria,
London Charing Cross
Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashf ...
and
Ashford, with some peak services to
London Blackfriars
Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and ...
.
In the off-peak, there are one train per hour from
Ashford International to
London Victoria via
Bromley South and
Swanley
Swanley is a town and 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 2011 census was 16,226.
Histor ...
stopping at all stations between Ashford and
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 Ch ...
and one train per hour from
Maidstone East
Maidstone East railway station is one of three stations in the central area of Maidstone, Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains o ...
to
London Charing Cross
Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashf ...
running semi-fast via Swanley and
London Bridge. These services are operated by
Class 375 and
Class 377 EMUs.
Thameslink
Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...
utilizes the route between
Swanley
Swanley is a town and 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 2011 census was 16,226.
Histor ...
and
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 Ch ...
on their
London Blackfriars
Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and ...
to
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the tradition ...
metro services via the Catford Loop and
Elephant and Castle
The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in 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 ...
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 ...
between
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
and
Maidstone East
Maidstone East railway station is one of three stations in the central area of Maidstone, Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains o ...
. As of September 2019, these services have not yet been introduced with no news about its 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