Charing railway station

Charing railway station serves Charing in Kent, England. It is 53 miles 11 chains (85.5 km) down the line from London Victoria. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by Southeastern.

Not to be confused with Charing Cross railway station

Charing
Main building, platform 2 and road bridge in 2012
Location
PlaceCharing
Local authorityAshford
Grid referenceTQ950491
Operations
Station codeCHG
Managed bySoutheastern
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryE
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 66,616
2015/16 72,652
2016/17 74,688
2017/18 72,940
2018/19 86,140
History
1 July 1884Opened
9 October 1961Electrified
14 April 1984Signal box closed
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Charing from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The ticket office is manned only during part of the day; at other times a PERTIS 'permit to travel' machine, located outside the station building on the 'down' side, suffices.

The next station eastwards (towards Ashford) used to be Hothfield, however it was closed in 1959, although it remained a 'request' stop for railway staff throughout the 1960s.[1]

History
Main entrance in 2009.

The station was opened on 1 July 1884,[2] as part of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) extension to Ashford West of the 1874 line to Maidstone, which itself was a branch off the LCDR's Sevenoaks branch of 1862, which joined the LCDR mainline of 1840 at Swanley.[3] In the wake of 1955 British Rail Modernisation plan, the "Kent Coast Electrification" scheme saw the suburban electrification of the previous Southern Railway extended from Maidstone East through to Ashford.[1] The goods yard comprised five sidings on the down side and one on the up side. It was taken over for military use during World War II. Electrification also saw the addition of a footbridge, but by 16 May 1964 freight operations ceased. Charing's signal box closed on 14 April 1984, when the upgraded Maidstone East Panel took control of the whole line.[4]

Services
Platform 1 seen from platform 2.

The typical off-peak service from the station is one train per hour to Canterbury West via Ashford International, and one train per hour to London Victoria via Maidstone East.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Lenham   Southeastern
Maidstone East Line		   Ashford International
Disused railways
Lenham   British Rail
Southern Region
Maidstone East Line		   Hothfield

References
  1. "Kent Rail". p. 2. Retrieved 20 July 2008.
  2. Butt 1995, p. 57.
  3. Mitchell & Smith 1995, Historical Background.
  4. Mitchell & Smith 1995, Charing.
Sources
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1995). Swanley to Ashford. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1 873793 45 6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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