North Kent Line

The North Kent Line is a railway line which passes between London and Rochester in north Kent and one of the different versions of a rail link between Dover and London (South Eastern Main Line, Chatham Main Line) represents. The trunk is used mainly by trains of South Eastern. It is the only railway line, which can be accessed from the same six major London railway stations ( Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Waterloo East, London Bridge, Victoria and St Pancras ).

History

After the South Eastern Railway was prevented from extending the Greenwich Line southeast England due to a dispute with the Greenwich Hospital, she decided to build a new main line from Lewisham to Gravesend. Lewisham was already connected by South Eastern Main Line with the London city center. The line between Lewisham and Gravesend went on 30 April 1849 in operation. Just four years earlier, the Thames and Medway Canal following railway Gravesend Stroods was opened to traffic. The SER then bought the channel, let him throw up and built the railway line to double track. As of 1873, of the NKL - station in Charlton then a branch line to Maze Hill, before closing the gap to Greenwich in 1878 followed by a tunnel. Despite this second railway, the North Kent Line was the more important connection. On June 6, 1926, the section between London and Dartford was electrified with a busbar with 750 volts DC, until 1930 then the portion to Gravesend, the remaining portion of NKL to Rochester as well as the location on the CML continue to Gillingham followed the Second World War. With the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, now High Speed ​​One a short link from Gravesend was built in 2006 to Ebbsfleet International Station, which is also scheduled to sail today.

Operation

The operation is performed by Southeastern, the journey time between Charing Cross and Gravesend is 51 minutes .. Trains run from Charing Cross and Cannon Street to Dartford, Slade Green, Gravesend and Gillingham, where the outgoing Cannon Street trains via Greenwich held via Lewisham operate. Overall drive up to 12 trains per hour in one direction. In addition, run since the opening of High Speed ​​One half-hour high-speed trains Class 395 between St Pancras and Faversham, taking advantage of the link between the High Speed ​​One and the North Kent Line and then the NKL to Rochester, before their journey on the Chatham Main Line continue. They serve at the NKL the stations Gravesend, Strood and Rochester.

Connections

The North Kent Line is connected to many other transport systems, particularly in Inner London. To offer in Lewisham and Woolwich Arsenal two interchanges for Docklands Light Railway and New Cross in the East London Line of London Overground can be achieved, which offers, among other compounds to Highbury & Islington. In addition, the Waterloo East station offers access to a few meters south Waterloo Railway Station, just a transition to the Underground Station Southwark Jubilee Line. More transitions to the underground there are at Charing Cross, Cannon Street and London Bridge.

Accidents

On June 18, 1857 around 21:30 clock bounced around 220 meters before the Lewisham train station in front of a detected signal at danger, two trains, each consisting of Strood coming into each other. The front train was a delay of 15 minutes on the road, when he was forced by the signal to a halt. To warn the immediately following, punctual train service, running a railway employee working backwards, waving a red lantern. However, he was not seen by the locomotive engineer of the train, so that he crashed into the stationary train. When misfortune eleven people lost their lives, 30 were injured.

Future

Crossrail

From 2017 the Abbey Wood station will be the southeastern end point of Crossrail. The new railway line branches off then immediately after the train left hand now and will still have a train station Woolwich Woolwich Dockyard near the railway stations and Woolwich Arsenal. 2020 Crossrail operation is extended to Gravesend, which would mean that the Gravesend station even of eight of the major London train stations - would be available - Crossrail operated underground passage railway stations in Liverpool Street and Paddington. After the extension of today's commuter trains Charing Cross Gravesend would set.

Thameslink

From 2014, the adoption of individual traits is provided by the Thameslink program, which trains would then operate instead to Charing Cross through the Snow Hill Tunnel to St Pancras and on to Bedford.

Charing Cross railway station South Western Main Line London Waterloo East railway station Blackfriars station Cannon Street station London Bridge station Outer South London Line Brighton Main Line Brighton railway station Greenwich station New Cross railway station Lewisham station Blackheath London Borough of Bexley Charlton, London Woolwich Arsenal station Plumstead Maidenhead Northfleet Gravesend, Kent Hoo Peninsula Chatham (Kent) Rochester (Kent) Southeastern (train operating company) Gillingham, Kent Ebbsfleet International railway station British Rail Class 395 Southwark tube station Liverpool Street station London Paddington station Snow Hill Tunnel (London)
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