Chartham railway station is in

Chartham Chartham is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent, England. It is situated on the Ashford side of the city, and is in the North Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, south west of Canterbury, England. The Great St ...

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 ...

, on the

Ashford to Ramsgate line Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a town **B ...

. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Facilities

The station is to the north of Chartham village and south of the

A28 road The A28 is a trunk road in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in south east England, connecting Margate, Canterbury, Ashford and Hastings. Starting at the seaside resort of Margate at the north-east point of Kent, the A28 runs inland and w ...

which runs parallel from Ashford to Canterbury. It is unstaffed, but has electronic indicator boards and a ticket machine. There are two platforms, connected by a footbridge. A

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

at the south end of the station, by the signal box, was formerly manually operated but was replaced with automated crossing gates in December 2022.

History

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) in September 1850, some time after the line from Ashford to Canterbury was completed. In common with several other stations on the line, there was a level crossing as the SER did not believe the line would attract sufficient traffic for bridges. Goods services were withdrawn from the station on 19 November 1962.

Incidents

At around 06:45 on 9 October 1894, a wagon of hop-pickers on their way to work at Horton Chapel Farm was struck by the delayed 04:15 down

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

to goods train. Canterbury West goods train. Five hop-pickers were killed instantly, with a further two dying from their injuries later. The investigation found that the wagon driver had left the opening of the gates to children in poor visibility, and had failed to stop before crossing. The train crew whistled at least three times while approaching the crossing. The inspecting officer,

Charles Scrope Hutchinson Major-General Charles Scrope Hutchinson (8 August 1826 – 29 February 1912) was Chief Inspecting Officer for Railways from 1892 to 1895. Family Hutchinson was born in Hythe, Kent, son of Scrope Hutchinson, M.D. He was educated at University C ...

, criticised the South Eastern Railway for the excessively long rostered hours of the train crew. Ultimately, blame was assigned to the wagon driver and the SER was exonerated.

Services

Chartham station geograph-3104808-by-Ben-Brooksbank

All services at Chartham are operated by

using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to London Charing Cross via * 1 tph to During the peak hours, the station is also served by trains to

London Cannon Street Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is ...

. The station is also served by a single early morning service to

London St Pancras International St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...

, operated by a EMU.

References

Notes Citations Sources * * *

External links

{{coord, 51.257, N, 1.018, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title City of Canterbury Railway stations in Kent DfT Category F2 stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1850 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1859 establishments in England