Chilham railway station


Chilham railway station is a railway station in Chilham, Kent. It is on the Ashford to Ramsgate line between and. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by Southeastern.

History

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway on 6 February 1846, as the first part of their line towards Thanet, which opened as far as on this date.
There are level crossings near both ends of the station, since the SER were unsure about the levels of traffic on the line and decided to cross several roads at-grade instead of bridges. Trains that delayed cars at the crossings for more than five minutes would be fined.
The station attracted attention from other railway companies. A proposal was put forward for a branch line from Chilham to, but rejected by the SER. In retrospect, this turned out to be a mistake as the East Kent Railway, later to become the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, built their own line to Faversham, competing with the SER for London - Thanet traffic. In response, the SER proposed building a line from its station at to Chilham across the River Medway and the North Downs, in order to cut demand for the LCDR. This plan was withdrawn after the SER realised such a scheme would probably involve also constructing a line from Canterbury to Dover.
Goods services were withdrawn from the station on 15 August 1966.

Accidents and incidents

As of December 2019, the off peak service at the station in trains per hour is:
During the peak hours, the service is strengthened with additional services between London Charing Cross and calling at the station.