Herne Bay railway station is on 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 is ...

in England, serving the town of

Herne Bay Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

, Kent. It is down the line from and is situated between and . The station and all trains that serve the station 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

Constructed by the Herne Bay and Faversham Railway Company, the first station originally opened in 1861 as "Herne Bay and Hampton-on-Sea" as the terminus of a line from

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British t ...

; however, this station was a temporary one, located just west of where Greenhill Bridge is now situated. The line was extended to

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

on 5 October 1863, roughly when the current station was brought into use. The line was worked by the

London, Chatham & 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 no ...

which acquired the Herne Bay Company in 1871. On the station platform in 1879–1880, a Hampton-on-Sea sign was added to the Herne Bay one in the expectation of the development of a new settlement next to what is now Hampton, but Hampton-on-Sea was drowned due to

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...

by 1921. It is not recorded how long the sign survived. (See historic photo, right): The buildings on the Down platform are all that remain of the original station building, as the Up side was reconstructed by the Southern Railway in 1926 as part of its plan to modernise the Thanet Lines. Goods facilities at the station were limited, consisting of two sidings on the Down side, a goods shed and two loading docks. In 1902 coal sidings were added to the Up side, followed by a private siding to the local gasworks. Electrification took place on 15 June 1959 and the old semaphore signals were replaced by colour-lights under Southern Region. General goods traffic ceased on 16 October 1965, with coal deliveries continuing until 1968. Herne Bay Railway Station was also featured briefly in the British Sitcom ''

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1, created and written by Raymond Allen (scriptwriter), Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice. It was first broadcast in 1973 and ran for two series, inc ...

'', in the episode "Have a break, take a Husband" which originally aired 8 March 1973. In October 2021, approval was given to construct a footbridge with lifts that will enable step-free access to both platforms. File:Herne Bay railway station platforms in 2009.jpg, Herne Bay as viewed from a train File:Herne Bay railway station with KCF 31461 May 1953.jpg, KCF 31461 northbound from Herne Bay station, 2 May 1953

Accidents and incidents

*On 1 August 1895, a freight train collided with a passenger train at the station. One person was killed.

Services

All services at Herne Bay are operated by

using and

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 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 i ...

* 1 tph to * 2 tph to Additional services including trains to and from and

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 ...

call at the station in the peak hours.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Chatham=y, High Speed=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y Herne Bay, Kent Railway stations in Kent DfT Category D stations Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1861 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1863 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1861 establishments in England