Folkestone West railway station

Folkestone West

Location

Place

Folkestone

Local authority

Shepway

Operations

Station code

FKW

Managed by

Southeastern

Number of platforms

Live arrivals/departures and station information
from National Rail Enquiries

Annual rail passenger usage

2004/05 *

79,810

2005/06 *

82,527

2006/07 *

0.154 million

2007/08 *

0.195 million

2008/09 *

0.226 million

History

1 November 1863

Opened as "Shorncliffe Camp"

2 July 1926

Renamed (Shorncliffe)

10 September 1962

Renamed (Folkestone West)

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 estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Folkestone West from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

UK Railways portal

Folkestone West railway station is one of two open railway stations in Folkestone in Kent. The station is operated by Southeastern.

The ticket office, in a room on the extensive 'up' side buildings on the London-bound platform, is manned only during part of the day; at other times a PERTIS 'permit to travel' machine, located outside the ticket office, suffices. The substantial 'down side' platform building is occupied as offices by Network Rail.

1 History
2 Services
3 References
4 External links

History

The South Eastern Main Line reached Folkestone in 1843, with a station being opened at Folkestone Junction (Folkestone East) on 18 December 1843. Folkestone West was opened in 1863 as Shorncliffe Camp, initially with two platform faces either side of double track. In 1881 the station was rebuilt with two platform faces either side of four tracks. Sometime around 1887 a bay was added to the down platform as from 1887 to 1947 the station served as the southern terminus and interchange for the Elham Valley Railway with services to Canterbury. The station was altered during the 1960-61 East Kent Electrication as the line from Folkestone Central to near the site of Cheriton Junction was quadrupled. Following the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the loss of the boat train traffic, in 1994 the two centre tracks were removed.^[1]

In 2008 alterations were made on the north side of the station to provide car parking and coach loading bays, the latter in connection with the operation of the 'Orient Express' which until then operated from Folkestone Harbour Station.

Services

The off-peak service as of December 2011^[update] is:

1tph (trains per hour) to London St Pancras
2tph to London Charing Cross, which run via Sevenoaks
3tph to Dover Priory of which one continues to Ramsgate^[2]

Venice Simplon Orient Express transferred their services to a new facility at Folkestone West from their original location at Folkestone Harbour.^[3] VSOE runs two trains per week between the end of March and the beginning of November.

Preceding station	National Rail		Following station
Sandling		Southeastern South Eastern Main Line	Folkestone Central
Ashford International		Southeastern High Speed 1 London-Dover	Folkestone Central
London Victoria		Venice Simplon Orient Express London-Paris-Venice March to November	Calais-Ville via Channel Tunnel
	Disused railways
Cheriton Halt		Southern Railway Elham Valley Railway	Terminus