Swale railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swale

Location

Place

Kingsferry Bridge

Local authority

Swale

Operations

Station code

SWL

Managed by

Southeastern

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

3,831

2005/06 *

5,446

History

1913

Opened as a staff halt called Ridham Dock.

December 1922

Opened to public as Swale Halt.

1 November 1923

Name changed to Kings Ferry Bridge Halt.

1929

Name changed to Swale Halt.

20 April 1960

New station opened.

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 Swale from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Map of the Swale Railway Station in relation to other local stations and the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway. The Chatham Main Line run along the bottom, east to west, while the Sheerness Line branches off northwards, west of Sittingbourne.

Swale railway station is in north Kent, England. The station is on the Sheerness Line 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Sittingbourne at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge which connects the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent. The nearest settlement is Iwade. Train services are provided by Southeastern.

It was opened in 1913 as a staff halt, possibly then called Ridham Dock. In December 1922 a ship collided with the Kingsferry Bridge, rendering it unfit for rail traffic, and the station was opened to the public, who were able to walk across the bridge to a temporary station at Swale (North) to continue their journeys. This situation continued until 1 November 1923, when the bridge reopened to traffic and the North halt closed. The station was renamed Kings Ferry Bridge Halt on this date. The name was changed to Swale Halt in 1929. With the building of the new Kingsferry Bridge in 1960, a new station was constructed, opening on the 20 April 1960.^[1]

There are currently plans to close Swale station, or at least replace its train service with a token service (eg one train a week in either direction).

[edit] Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is two trains per hour to Sheerness-on-Sea and two trains per hour to Sittingbourne, for connections to London. Since the 10th September 2006, trains have only stopped here on request.