Ham Street railway station

Ham Street railway station is a Grade II listed stop on the Marshlink line in the village of Hamstreet, Kent, between Ashford International and Hastings. Services are provided by Southern.

Ham Street
General information
Location	Hamstreet, Ashford England
Grid reference	TR000337
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	HMT
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	13 February 1851
Passengers
2019/20	92,812
2020/21	31,340
2021/22	57,486
2022/23	59,092
2023/24	77,776
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Railway station
Designated	9 May 2005
Reference no.	1391381[1]
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Location

The station is on a dual-track section of the unelectrified Marshlink Line. Train services are provided by Southern and operated by Class 171 Turbostar diesel trains.^[2]

The booking office - open on Mondays to Saturdays mornings - is located in the main station building on the Ashford-bound platform. The two PERTIS passenger-operated self-service ticket machines - one on each platform - have now been removed and replaced with Ticket Vending machines on each platform,^[3] which allows a ticket to be purchased from any origin, as opposed to just from Ham Street. The PERTIS passenger-operated self-service machines were installed in connection with a Penalty Fares Scheme in 2008.

History

The station was built by the South Eastern Railway to the designs of the company architect William Tress^[4] as one of four original stops on the line from Ashford to Hastings (the others being Appledore, Rye and Winchelsea). It opened on 13 February 1851. A goods station was added later in the year.^[5]

The original name was Ham Street. It was renamed to Ham Street & Orlestone on 1 February 1897, and then reverted to Ham Street in 1976.^[6] It was Grade II listed in 2005.^[1]

Along with several other stations on the line, Ham Street opened with staggered platforms, allowing a crossing across the railway from one to the other.^[7] After several accidents and near misses, a temporary footbridge was provided in 2014, replacing the previous flat crossing of the railway.^[8] It was replaced by a permanent bridge in 2017.^[9]

Services

All services at Ham Street are operated by Southern using Class 171 DMUs.

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

• 1 tph to Eastbourne via Hastings
• 1 tph to Ashford International

Previously, westbound trains ran as an express service to Brighton although this was changed to a stopping service to Eastbourne in the May 2018 timetable change.^[11]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Appledore		Southern Marshlink Line		Ashford International

References

Citations

1. Historic England. "Hamstreet and Orlestone Railway Station (1391381)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
2. "Network Rail Route Plan A 2010" (PDF). Network Rail. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
3. "New ticket buying options". Southern News East Coastway. Spring 2011. p. 3. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
4. "Survey of the St. Leonards and Hastings to Ashford Line by the Government Inspector". Sussex Advertiser. England. 31 December 1850. Retrieved 24 July 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
5. Gray 1990, pp. 210–11.
6. Butt 1995, p. 113.
7. Mitchell & Smith 1987, 110.
8. "Temporary footbridge for Ham Street station after level crossing incidents". Network Rail Media Centre. Archived from the original on 12 October 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
9. "Work to improve access for all at Ham Street station in Kent gets under way". Network Rail Media Centre. Archived from the original on 12 October 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
10. Table 196 National Rail timetable, December 2021
11. "Plans to axe unpopular two-carriage Eastbourne train service". Eastbourne Herald. 4 July 2017. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.

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.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1987). South Coast Railways - Hastings to Ashford and the New Romney Branch. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-37-1.

External links

• Train times and station information for Ham Street railway station from National Rail

51.068°N 0.855°E / 51.068; 0.855