The Maidstone line is a railway line between Swanley, Maidstone and Ashford in

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 ...

, England. The line diverges from 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 ...

at Swanley Junction and proceeds down the Darenth valley to Otford junction Retrieved 2012-01-12 (where the Bat & Ball line divides towards ). It continues via Borough Green & Wrotham and Maidstone East to

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 **B ...

, where it joins 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 t ...

. In 2020 the line from Ashford International to Kemsing was adopted by the Kent Rail Partnership and this section was renamed The Kent Downs Line

History

The line was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway from their first line (the Chatham Main Line). Upon the creation of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway the original Ashford terminus was closed in 1899 and services diverted to the South Eastern Railway's Ashford station. The line was electrified in 1939 (750 V DC third rail) to Maidstone East by the Southern Railway prior to World War Two. Electrification between Maidstone East and Ashford was completed in 1961 under the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan.

Infrastructure

Traction current is supplied at 750 volts DC via the

Third Rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...

. The supply for this is overseen by Paddock Wood Electrical Control Room. Signalling is

Track Circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind ...

Block with multiple aspect colour light signals throughout, controlled by Ashford IECC. The line is double track throughout.

Services

Services on the line are run 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 sep ...

. Services run to London Victoria,

London Charing Cross Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashf ...

and

, with some peak services to

London Blackfriars Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and ...

. In the off-peak, there are one train per hour from

Ashford International Ashford International railway station is a National Rail station in Ashford, Kent, England. It connects several railway lines, including High Speed 1 and the South Eastern Main Line. Services are operated by Southeastern and Southern. The st ...

to London Victoria via Bromley South and Swanley stopping at all stations between Ashford and Otford and one train per hour from Maidstone East to

running semi-fast via Swanley and

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It re ...

. These services are operated by Class 375 and Class 377 EMUs.

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

utilizes the route between Swanley and Otford on their

to Sevenoaks metro services via the Catford Loop and Elephant and Castle with two trains per hour running. Additional services through London will be introduced as part of the Thameslink Programme between

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and Maidstone East. As of September 2019, these services have not yet been introduced with no news about its future.

References

{{Coord, 51.2778, 0.5228, type:landmark_region:GB-KEN_scale:500000, display=title Rail transport in Kent Transport in the Borough of Ashford Railway lines in South East England Standard gauge railways in England