Gravesend railway station

51°26′28.74″N0°22′0.09″E / 51.4413167°N 0.3666917°E / 51.4413167; 0.3666917

Gravesend railway station serves the town of Gravesend in north Kent, England. It is 23 miles 75 chains (38.5 km) down the line from London Charing Cross.

Train services are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink. During Christmas 2013, a major overhaul of the lines and platforms changed the four track, two platform layout into two through lines and a western facing bay platform.

The first railway line 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 Street then later still Gravesend West) opened by SER's rivals, London, Chatham & 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 combined in 1899, the branch was soon relegated to a secondary line and closed in 1968. To differentiate from this other station, Gravesend was named Gravesend Central for a long time.

High speed HS1 services to London St Pancras International were introduced in December 2009 and proved highly successful, having cut London-bound journey times to 23 minutes. 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 bidirectional 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. This new bridge is at the far western end of the platforms; the previous bridge was conveniently near the centre of the platforms and near to the entry/exit.

Los servicios en Gravesend son operados por Southeastern y Thameslink utilizando trenes eléctricos de las clases 376 , 395 , 465 , 466 , 700 y 707 .

El servicio típico fuera de las horas punta en trenes por hora es: ^{[ 2 ]}

• 2 trenes por hora a la estación internacional de St Pancras en Londres
• 2 trenes por hora a London Charing Cross vía Sidcup
• 2 trenes por hora a London Victoria vía Bexleyheath
• 2 trenes por hora a Luton vía Woolwich Arsenal y Greenwich.
• 2 toneladas por hora a Rainham
• 1 tonelada por hora a Faversham
• 1 tonelada por hora a Ramsgate

Servicios adicionales, incluidos trenes desde y hacia London Cannon Street , y dos servicios diarios de ida y vuelta entre London St Pancras International y Maidstone West paran en la estación durante las horas punta. ^{[ 3 ]}

• Horarios de trenes e información sobre la estación de tren de Gravesend de National Rail