Swale railway station

Swale railway station is in north Kent, England, on the Sheerness Line 47 mi from London Victoria, at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge which, along with the more modern Sheppey Crossing, connects the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent. The nearest settlement is Iwade. Train services are provided by Southeastern.

Facilities


Swale is a single platform station with one curving platform. It is immediately adjacent to the A249 road which is on a flyover above the station before it crosses The Swale on the Sheppey Crossing. The station is named after The Swale, the channel which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland and connects with the River Medway to the west and Thames Estuary to the west. North of the station, the railway line crosses the channel on the Kingsferry Bridge. Ridham Dock lies 1 mi south-east of the station.

Swale Station was, for many years, the least-used station in Kent, until, in the 2021/22 statistics, it was overtaken by Kemsing.

History
The station was opened in 1913 as a staff halt, called Kings Ferry Bridge Halt. On 17 December 1922, the Norwegian cargo ship SS Gyp collided with the Kingsferry Bridge, rendering it unfit for rail traffic, and the station was renamed Kings Ferry Bridge South Halt, and opened to the public, who were able to walk across the bridge to a temporary station at Kings Ferry Bridge North Halt to continue their journeys.

This arrangement 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 by British Railways on a different alignment, opening on 20 April 1960.

In 2005 the idea of closing Swale station, or at least replacing its train service with a token service (e.g. one train a week in either direction), was proposed by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) but rejected.

Services
All services at Swale are operated by Southeastern using EMUs.

The typical off-peak service is one train per hour in each direction between Sheerness-on-Sea and Sittingbourne, from where connections are available to London Victoria, London St Pancras International, Dover Priory and Ramsgate.