Sandling 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 village of Sandling and the town of

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 ...

, 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 opened as Sandling Junction on 1 January 1888 by the South Eastern Railway (SER). The station was situated at the junction of the SER mainline (between and Folkestone and the Sandgate branch line that had opened in 1874 between and . There were four platforms with a footbridge over the mainline, two signal boxes and goods sidings either side of the branch line. The goods yard was able to accommodate most types of goods including live stock. The up branch platform was closed when the line to Sandgate was cut back to Hythe and the branch line singled in 1931. The station was host to a Southern Railway

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

in 1939. The branch line to Hythe was closed on 3 December 1951 and the down branch platform was closed. At the same time the station was renamed Sandling for Hythe. A camping coach was also positioned here by the Southern Region from 1954 to 1959, the coach was replaced in 1960 by two ''Pullman'' camping coaches until 1964 then from 1965 to 1967 there were three of them. The coaches were fitted with a full kitchen, two sleeping compartments and a room with two single beds. On 12 May 1980 the station was renamed as Sandling. It is the closest station to

Saltwood Castle Saltwood Castle is a castle in Saltwood village, one mile (2 km) north of Hythe, Kent, England. Of 11th century origin, the castle was expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Norman Conquest, the castle was appropriated by the Ar ...

(where

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tr ...

lived until his death) and it is frequently mentioned in the Alan Clark Diaries. In 2022 the disused branch platform is still in situ and a short section of the Hythe branch is available as a footpath.

Facilities

The station has a ticket office which is staffed during weekday mornings only (06:20-13:00 Mon-Fri). At other times, the station is unstaffed and tickets must be purchased from the 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 instanc ...

. The station has passenger help points located on each of the two platforms. The station has a small cycle rack as well as a chargeable car park at the entrance, operated by Saba Parking. The station has step-free access available to the platforms although the Dover bound platform can only be reached from the station building via the footbridge meaning step-free access is not possible if ticket facilities are required as there is no ticket machine on the Dover platform.

Services

All services at Sandling are operated by

using Class 375 EMUs. 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 and there is also 1 train per day to .

Bus Connections

The station is served by the following bus routes, all operated by Stagecoach South East: * 10/10A to Ashford and Folkestone * 18 to

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

and

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Staplehurst=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y Transport in Folkestone and Hythe Railway stations in Kent DfT Category E stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1888 establishments in England