Strood railway station

Strood railway station serves the town of Strood in Medway, England. It is on the North Kent Line and is also a terminus of the Medway Valley Line. It is 31 mi down the line from London Charing Cross.

Train services are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink.

History


The South Eastern Railway (SER) had reached Strood in 1845 as the terminus of the line from Gravesend. In 1856, this line was linked to the existing Maidstone branch from Paddock Wood, which had opened in 1844. The new line left the line from Gravesend between Strood Tunnel and the original Strood terminus; a new Strood station was provided on the Maidstone line, and it opened with the line on 18 June 1856.

The station became a junction with the opening of the first section of the East Kent Railway (EKR) between Strood and Chatham on 29 March 1858. The London, Chatham & Dover Railway (which the EKR had become in 1859) soon opened their own route from Rochester towards London, the first portion as far as Bickley opening on 3 December 1860. The curve connecting the LCDR line with Strood station fell into disuse (apart from one goods train in each direction per day), but passenger services over this line were reintroduced in early 1877 at the insistence of the Mayor of Chatham. The Mayor's name was Toomer, and the line then became known as the "Toomer Loop".

Although Strood station was the property of the SER, the Toomer Loop, together with the stations at Rochester and Chatham, was LCDR property. A second junction at Strood was bought into use on 20 July 1891, when the first section of the Rochester & Chatham Extension was opened, by which SER trains reached their own stations at Rochester and, from 1 March 1892, Chatham. This line was to the north-east of, and largely ran parallel to, the LCDR line; it had its own bridge over the Medway. On 1 January 1899 the SER and LCDR entered into a working union which traded as the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SE&CR) and set about eliminating duplicated facilities. In 1911, a connecting line was put in between the SER and LCDR on the south-eastern side of the SER's Rochester Bridge; this allowed trains from Strood to reach the LCDR stations at Rochester and Chatham from October 1911. In 1927 (after the SER & LCDR had merged with other railways to form the Southern Railway), another connecting line was put in between the former SER and LCDR routes on the north-eastern side of the SER's Rochester Bridge; this enabled the LCDR's bridge to be taken out of use.

Southeastern introduced a full timetable of domestic high-speed services branded Southeastern Highspeed over High Speed 1 between London St Pancras and Ashford International on 13 December 2009, although public preview services had been running since 29 June 2009. High-speed trains use High Speed 1 calling at Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International. Trains from London to the Medway towns and Faversham leave the high-speed line at Ebbsfleet and continue via the North Kent line through Gravesend, Strood, Rochester. A limited peak hour service now also operates between St Pancras and Maidstone West via Ebbsfleet and Strood.

At the same time there was the largest change to the timetable in the area in 40 years in order to accommodate the extra trains. This meant that rail services from Newington and Teynham were cut, in order to facilitate this new service. To use the train service over the High Speed 1 section of line generally requires payment of a surcharge.

In December 2017, the station received a £2.59 million refurbishment which included new entrances, a larger booking hall and a new waiting room.

Facilities
The station has three platforms; Platform 1 is directly accessible from the station building. Platforms 2 and 3 are on an island platform. The entrance, ticket office and ticket barriers adjoin Platform 1, with a tunnel from that platform leading to the island. In 2014, a new bridge with lifts was built at the southern end of the station to replace the tunnel and provide wheelchair access to the island platform. As of summer 2015 both the bridge and tunnel are open.

Platforms 2 and 1 mainly handle traffic to and from London respectively, with Maidstone West, Tonbridge and Paddock Wood services terminating at and returning from Platform 3.

Until the early 1980s, an additional entrance to the station was located on Station Road. The entrance was a continuation of the station subway, the external building is still extant on Station Road, although all windows and doors have been bricked up. The building contained a small ticket office.

Services
Services at Strood are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink using, , , and  EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
 * 2 tph to Luton via Dartford and Greenwich
 * 2 tph to London St Pancras International
 * 2 tph to Rainham
 * 1 tph to Faversham
 * 1 tph to Ramsgate
 * 2 tph to Paddock Wood via Maidstone West

Additional services, including trains to and from London Charing Cross via Sidcup, and two daily return services between London St Pancras International and Maidstone West call at the station during the peak hours.

The station is also served by a small number of early morning, mid afternoon and late evening services that continue beyond Paddock Wood to and from Tonbridge.