Maidstone East railway station

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Maidstone East

Location

Place

Maidstone

Local authority

Maidstone

Operations

Station code

MDE

Managed by

Southeastern

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

0.829 million

2005/06 *

0.870 million

History

1874

Opened as "Maidstone"

1899

Renamed (Maidstone East)

1939

Electrified

1993

Derailment

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Maidstone East from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Maidstone East railway station is one of three railway stations in Maidstone, Kent, but the only one with a regular direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone East Line, 40 miles (64 km) south-east of London Victoria and is served by Southeastern.

1 Layout
2 History
- 2.1 Accidents
- 2.2 Development
3 Services
4 Gallery
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Layout

The station is located immediately to the east of the River Medway in a large cutting excavated from the natural slope of the valley side. The approach from the west is via a high level truss bridge over the river and a later girder bridge over the A229. Immediately to the east of the station is the portal to the 100 yards (91 m) Week Street tunnel. The main station building stands at street level on Station Road, above the tunnel portal.

The station currently has three platforms: platforms 1 and 2 are through platforms capable of handling trains of up to 8-car length. Platform three is a bay platform on the north (down line) side. Ramps lead down to the platforms on each side. The station formerly had an extensive goods yard on its north side. Part of this is the site of a Royal Mail sorting office and the remainder is a car park for station users. A short siding from the down line immediately to the west of platforms 2 and 3 is a remnant of the tracks into the goods yard. A smaller goods yard also existed on the south side of the station; this is also now used as a car park. A disused face to platform 1 shows the alignment of another former bay platform on this side of the station.

A third track runs as a passing track through the station between the up and down lines.

A pedestrian walkway on the railway bridge provides a route to the Medway Valley Line's Maidstone Barracks station on the west side of the river. Maidstone's third station, Maidstone West, is about 0.5 miles (800 m) south of Maidstone Barracks.

[edit] History

Maidstone East station was opened as Maidstone by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 June 1874 as the terminus of the railway's new line from Otford. On 1 July 1884, the line was extended eastwards to Ashford. In 1899, following the merger of the LCDR with the South Eastern Railway (SER) which operated the Medway Valley line, the station was given its current name to distinguish it from the SER's identically named station which was renamed Maidstone West.

Following the grouping of the mainline railway companies into larger regional railways in 1923, the Southern Railway undertook the electrification of the railway as far east as Maidstone East in 1939. Electrification to Ashford was carried-out in 1961. Goods services at the station were discontinued in 1965.

[edit] Accidents

The station has been the site of two railway accidents, both involving freight trains.

In the first, on 17 July 1967, a slow-moving west-bound freight train, passed a signal at danger and ran into the rear of a stationary passenger train at the up platform causing damage to the both trains but only interrupting services for a few hours.

The second accident, on 6 September 1993, was more significant. At 0202 BST, a serious freight derailment occurred. A train, comprising 15 goods wagons was travelling from Dover to Willesden hauled by a Class 47 Locomotive (No 47288), when, due to excessive speed, the locomotive's rear bogie derailed in the tunnel approaching Maidstone East. The locomotive ended up on its side, on the track. Several wagons left the track, running into signals, platforms and buildings, spilling their load of 900 tons of steel cables. The driver subsequently failed a breathalyser test. Maidstone East was closed for recovery and repairs for several weeks following the incident.

[edit] Development

In 2006, a redevelopment of the station was proposed by Network Rail in conjunction with UK supermarket chain ASDA. The proposed redevelopment included a 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m²) store, hotel, 100 new homes and a car park for 515 cars.^[1] In 2008, the future of this plan is unclear.