Rochester railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the town of Rochester, Kent. It is down the line from and is situated between and . The station and most trains that call are operated by Southeastern and

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 ...

, including a handful of peak services to and from operated by the latter. In December 2015 a new station on Corporation Street opened to the west of the original station which it replaced. It is now closer to the town centre and its historic buildings.

Original station

The first station opened as part of the London Chatham & Dover Railway in 1892. It was set back some distance from the High Street to the east of the busy junction at Star Hill, and access to the platforms was via tunnels from the ticket office. The station buildings and platforms were taken out of use in December 2015.

New station

In 2013,

Medway Council Medway Council is the local authority of Medway, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is ...

approved plans submitted by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

to construct a new station for a cost of £26m. On 16 January 2014 Gallagher Ltd cast the

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

base slab for a new subway for the station with construction continuing into 2015. According to the billboards adjoining the station site, the concrete subway was to be the first part of the project to be completed; this took place over Easter 2015.

Office of Rail Regulation The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its a ...

confirmation of the closure of the old station were exhibited at Charing Cross station and elsewhere in October 2015. The new station was opened for passenger use on 13 December 2015 with its official opening by the

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwa ...

on 24 February 2016. File:Rochesterrear.jpg, Rochester (original) station building closed on 13 December 2015. File:New Rochester (re-located) railway station.JPG, Under construction platforms (on the left) and the large entrance hall (on the right).

Layout

Platform 1 serves trains towards Strood, Gravesend, Ebbsfleet International, Dartford, Meopham, Bromley South into London. Platform 2 serves trains towards Gillingham, Faversham, Margate, Ramsgate, Canterbury East, Dover Priory, and Ashford International via Sandwich and Deal. Platform 3 has now opened up as a through platform, service trains towards Gillingham, Faversham, Ashford International and the Kent Coast. Trains can also terminate here before heading back towards London. As the through line runs all the way through Platform 4 of the old Rochester station, it can be used to hold long freight services to allow passenger services to pass, removing a bottleneck.

Services

Services at Rochester are operated by Southeastern and

using , , , and EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to London St Pancras International * 3 tph to (2 of these run non-stop from and 1 runs via ) * 2 tph to via and * 1 tph to * 2 tph to * 1 tph to * 1 tph to via * 2 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 ...

via , and fast trains to and from London Cannon Street call at the station during the peak hours.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Chatham=y, Ashford=y, Abbey Wood=y, Sidcup=y, High Speed=y, SN None=y

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Railway stations in Medway DfT Category D stations Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1892 Railway stations served by Southeastern Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway