The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named afte ...

Quail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and

Dover Priory The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and Martin of Tours, St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of t ...

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...

, travelling via

Medway Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

(of which the town of Chatham is part, hence the name). Services to

Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the north of the City. It is the site of the ancient London S ...

follow the route as far as St Mary Cray Junction where they diverge onto the South Eastern Main Line near Chislehurst. Thameslink services to Luton run in parallel from Rainham to Rochester, diverging once across the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

at Rochester Bridge Junction onto the

North Kent Line The North Kent Line is a railway line which branches off the South East Main Line at St Johns junction west of Lewisham station in Greater London and runs to Rochester Bridge Junction near Strood, Medway where it links to the Chatham Main ...

via

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

and

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

. A shuttle service operates on the Sheerness Line which starts at

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, southeast England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The town stands next to th ...

Services

Most services on the Line are run by SE Trains and Southern.

Govia Thameslink Railway Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a British train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, TSGN rail franchise. Within the franchise, GTR runs trains under the sub-brands: Thameslink, Great North ...

run some

Thameslink Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...

services, the first starting from and travelling via on the Catford Loop, joining at Shortlands Junction, travelling to before heading to . The second service starts from and also travels via the Catford Loop to Shortlands Junction, travelling to before heading off to . The final service starts at and goes via , , and to before terminating at Rainham in the bay platform 0. While travelling between Bromley South and

, the trains can either travel on the main line, through Beckenham Junction,

Herne Hill Herne Hill () is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the London ...

and

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

, or via the Catford Loop Line, coming away from the main line at Shortlands Junction, travelling through and , and then just past it either picks up the Southeastern line all the way, or can follow the Southern (Atlantic) Line through before crossing back over to the Southeastern Line to

. The hourly stopping service is now scheduled to run via , additionally stopping at . The off-peak timetable consists of two trains per hour from Victoria, calling at , , , , , Gillingham and Rainham. One service will call at , , and , then all stations to via . The other service will just call at and , then all stations to and . These trains no longer split up at . There is an hourly service from Victoria calling at via the Catford Loop, , then all stations to Gillingham. A High Speed Service sees two trains per hour from to via and . One service terminates at before travelling back to via and . The other service continues coastbound as a semi-fast service calling at , , , , and . It then carries on, stopping at , , , , , , and , before picking up the High Speed Line to , and arriving back at . A service operates in the opposite direction. There is one other High Speed Service that runs on a small part of the line, starting from and calling at and before heading to , and , then picking up the High Speed Line and calling at the remaining stations to . A Thameslink service now starts from Rainham and calls at nearly all stations via , , , (for

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a railway line that runs across Greater London and nearby towns, operating similarly to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries. It runs services on dedicated infras ...

services), and (both for the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated medium-capacity rail system, light metro system primarily serving the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands area of London and providing a direct connection between London's two major financi ...

), , and beyond. Passengers for , or now have to change at .

Rolling stock

The following trains are operated on the line : Class 465 "Networker" since 1992, Class 466 "Networker" since 1993, Class 375 "Electrostar" since 2001, Class 395 "Javelin" since 2009, and 8-car Class 700 "Desiro City" since 2018.

History

The line was built by the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England. It was created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through Lond ...

, who were in competition with the South Eastern Railway (hence the duplication of stations in Kent). They subsequently built lines to Sevenoaks and Ashford (via Maidstone) from the Chatham Main Line. The line was electrified (750 V DC third rail) in a series of stages. Initially the new Southern Railway electrified the urban (within London) workings of the SECR in the 1920s. In July 1925 "South Eastern Electrification (Stage 1)" saw the line from Victoria to junction with the South Eastern Main Line at Bickley, including the Catford Loop Line electrified. This was extended to outer suburban workings to Sevenoaks via Swanley (Bickley junction to Swanley) in two stages, reaching St Mary Cray in May 1934 and Swanley in January 1935. Full outer suburban electrification was achieved with the "Maidstone & Gillingham Electrification" scheme in July 1939, extending electrification from Swanley to Gillingham. Post war, under the BR's 1955 Modernisation plan, electrification was completed (Gillingham to Ramsgate and Dover) under "Kent Coast Electrification" stage 1 in 1959. At the same time the four track section between Shortlands and St Mary Cray junction was extended to Swanley Junction with a complete rebuilding of the St Mary Cray Junction. Two passing loops were added (to create a four-track section) between Rainham and Newington. A short branch was built during World War One to service the construction of RAF Manston with a junction off the up line at Birchington on Sea.

Eurostar

Heading away from Victoria, between Farningham Road and Longfield Stations, the line which was originally used by

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

trains travelling from Waterloo International towards Fawkham Junction to access

High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...

still exists, but is currently not in use. At one time this line was reserved for emergency use only by Class 395 Javelins travelling to/from Ashford International but, as the route knowledge has not been updated, no trains run on this line any more. The Eurostar trains can no longer use this line as the Class 373 "Eurostar e300" trains had their 750V DC third rail shoes removed in 2007, whilst the new Class 374 "Eurostar e320" trains are both not fitted with third rail equipment and built to the Continental European

loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and k ...

, which is larger than Great Britain's.

East Kent re-signalling project

The idea of this project is for control of East Kent from Longfield to Ramsgate and just short of Dover Priory to be under the control of the East Kent Signalling Centre (EKSC) based at Gillingham. Phase 1 of the project was carried out over the Christmas and New Year period of 2011, which involved the complete re-signalling from just east of Sittingbourne to Faversham, then on to Minster Junction and Buckland Junction, just short of Dover Priory. The old signal boxes were then abolished at Faversham, Margate, Ramsgate, Canterbury East and Shepherdswell. Phase 2 involved the re-signalling of the line between Sittingbourne to Longfield and Strood, including the Sheerness Branch Line and the Medway Valley Line to operate from the East Kent Signalling Centre at Gillingham, which is now operational. This means that the Signal Boxes at Rainham and Rochester have now closed, although Sittingbourne remains open as a relay signal box for the Sheerness Branch Line, controlled from Gillingham. On 13 December 2015, a new £26M Rochester station on Corporation Street opened 500 m west of the original station which it replaced. This station has three platforms and can accommodate 12-car trains instead of the 10-cars maximum length at the original station. Some 12-car peak-time trains are additionally stopping here. At the time, only platforms 1 and 2 were operational. From Easter 2016, Platform 3 was only a Bay Platform with a maximum length of eight cars, but since 10 October 2016, Platform 3 became a through platform with services either able to head towards the Kent Coast or terminating here before head back up towards London. At the East End of the platform, a third line now runs all the way up to the old Rochester Station passing through what was Platform 4 before rejoining the Down Main towards Chatham. This can also enable long freight trains to be held here, allowing passenger services to pass, therefore removing a potential bottleneck. Rainham has a new bay platform off the up-line, which can accommodate a 12-car train, labelled Platform 0. It was being used temporarily as a Terminus for a couple of evening rush hour trains, but since the introduction of the new Thameslink Metro timetable in 2018, this is now the terminus for services to Luton via Gravesend, Dartford, Woolwich Arsenal and Greenwich, stopping at all but a few stations to London Bridge. Strood has also been lengthened to accommodate 12-car trains.

Accidents and incidents

*On 10 September 1963, a freight train became divided and was derailed between and due to defects in a wagon. The line was closed until 13 September.

References

External links

{{Railway lines in South East England Rail transport in Kent Transport in the London Borough of Bromley Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth Transport in Medway Transport in the London Borough of Southwark Transport in the London Borough of Wandsworth Railway lines in London Railway lines in South East England Standard gauge railways in England