Westenhanger railway station is on 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 ...

in England, serving the villages of

Westenhanger Stanford is a village and civil parish in Kent, England. It is part of the Folkestone and Hythe district. It has been divided by the M20 into Stanford North and Stanford South. The Stanford Windmill is to the north of the M20 and west of the a ...

and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, as well as

Folkestone Racecourse Folkestone Racecourse was a thoroughbred horse racing venue in southeast England, until it closed in 2012. It is located in Westenhanger, by junction 11 of the M20 motorway and about two miles west of Folkestone. The course remains closed and ...

, in Kent. It is down the line from London Charing Cross. The station and all trains that call are 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 ...

History

The station was built by the South Eastern Railway (SER). The line through the station opened on 28 June 1843, before construction had started. It was announced on 28 November 1843 and was planned to be the station serving

Hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...

; the SER Chairman

Joseph Baxendale Joseph Baxendale (1785–1872) was an English entrepreneur, known for rebuilding and expanding the Pickfords carrier company in the middle of the 19th century. Early life and background He was born in Lancaster, the elder son of Josiah Baxendale ...

hoped to stand as a candidate in the next general election for that constituency. It opened on 7 February 1844 along with the extension from to . An inn was built next to the station in September. The station became a junction when the SER's branch line to opened on 10 October 1864. However, it was inconveniently placed, and the SER considered closing it and building a station somewhere else. Ultimately, the station was not closed and

Sandling railway station Sandling railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the village of Sandling and the town of Hythe, Kent. It is down the line from London Charing Cross. The station and all trains that call are operated by Southeaster ...

opened.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

proposed the closure of the station as from 3 February 1969. Objections were made which were considered by a Transport Users' Consultative Committee, after which the Minister of Transport decided against closure. In 2017, Shepway District Council announced plans to build a

garden town The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

next to the station, with around 12,000 new homes.

Racecourse station

In 1898, a station about 250 metres west of Westenhanger was built to serve the adjacent Folkestone Racecourse. It was only used on race days. It closed in the 1960s. As in 2022 the majority of the disused platforms were still in situ.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and facilities are limited. There is a self-service

ticket machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

at the station entrance and passenger help points located on each of the platforms. There is also a small (free) car park at the station entrance. The station has step-free access available to the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

bound platform although the

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

bound platform can only be reached via the footbridge meaning step-free access is not possible.

Services

All services at Westenhanger are operated by

using Class 375

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, there are also services to and from

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 ...

and there is also 1 train per day to .

References

Citations Sources * *

External links

Transport in Folkestone and Hythe Railway stations in Kent DfT Category F1 stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1844 establishments in England {{Kent-railstation-stub