Chartham railway station

Not to be confused with Chatham railway station.

Chartham railway station is in Chartham, Kent, on the Ashford to Ramsgate line. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by Southeastern.

Chartham
General information
Location	Chartham, Canterbury England
Grid reference	TR107552
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CRT
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Opened	September 1850
Passengers
2018/19	73,888
2019/20	79,206
2020/21	21,736
2021/22	64,192
2022/23	79,814
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Facilities

The station is to the north of Chartham village and south of the A28 road which runs parallel from Ashford to Canterbury. It is unstaffed, but has electronic indicator boards and a ticket machine. There are two platforms, connected by a footbridge. A level crossing at the south end of the station, by the signal box, was formerly manually operated but was replaced with automated crossing gates in December 2022.^[1][2][3]

History

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) in September 1850, some time after the line from Ashford to Canterbury was completed.^[4][a] In common with several other stations on the line, there was a level crossing as the SER did not believe the line would attract sufficient traffic for bridges.^[7]

Goods services were withdrawn from the station on 19 November 1962.^[6]

Incidents

At around 06:45 on 9 October 1894, a wagon of hop-pickers on their way to work at Horton Chapel Farm was struck by the delayed 04:15 down Ashford to Canterbury West goods train. Canterbury West goods train. Five hop-pickers were killed instantly, with a further two dying from their injuries later. The investigation found that the wagon driver had left the opening of the gates to children in poor visibility, and had failed to stop before crossing. The train crew whistled at least three times while approaching the crossing. The inspecting officer, Charles Scrope Hutchinson, criticised the South Eastern Railway for the excessively long rostered hours of the train crew.^[8] Ultimately, blame was assigned to the wagon driver and the SER was exonerated.^[9]

Services

View westward, towards Ashford in 1984

All services at Chartham are operated by Southeastern using Class 375 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[10]

• 1 tph to London Charing Cross via Tonbridge
• 1 tph to Ramsgate

Additional services, including trains to and from London Cannon Street and London St Pancras International call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Chilham		Southeastern Ashford to Ramsgate Line		Canterbury West

References

Notes

1. Other sources give the opening date for the station as 1859.^[5][6]

Citations

1. Castle, Liane (3 January 2023). "Villagers welcome new automated level crossings in Wye and Chartham as traffic reduced". Kent Online. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
2. "Chartham". Network Rail. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
3. "Chartham Level Crossing". The ABC railway Guide. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
4. Gray 1990, p. 248.
5. Butt 1995, p. 58.
6. McCarthy & McCarthy 2007, p. 122.
7. Gray 1990, p. 244.
8. Hutchinson, Charles Scrope (29 October 1894). Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Chartham on 9th October 1894. Board of Trade (Report). Retrieved 8 March 2020.
9. Gray 1990, p. 251.
10. Table 197, 207 National Rail timetable, December 2022

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 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. OL 11956311M.
• Gray, Adrian (1990). South Eastern Railway. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-85-7.
• McCarthy, Colin; McCarthy, David (2007). Railway of Britain : Kent and Sussex. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-3222-4.

External links

• Train times and station information for Chartham railway station from National Rail

51.257°N 1.018°E / 51.257; 1.018