History
The first railway to arrive in Gravesend was the Gravesend & Rochester Railway (G&RR) who had purchased the Thames and Medway Canal and its tunnel between Strood and Higham. The G&RR ran the first train to the then terminus at Gravesend (adjacent to the Canal Basin) on 10 February 1845. On 30 July 1849 the line was extended to North Kent East Junction on the South Eastern Railway (SER) and thence to London Bridge.
There was a second Gravesend station (in later years known as Gravesend West), opened by SER's rivals London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). It was the end of a branch off the LCDR's main line and it allowed access to Victoria. journey times were uncompetitive and when the two companies merged in 1899, the branch was soon relegated to a secondary line and closed in 1968.
High speed HS1 services to London St Pancras International were introduced in December 2009 and proved highly successful. The station is now seen as a major interchange for metro and high speed services. It is noted that there is a far greater customer patronage for high speed services to London St Pancras International from Gravesend in comparison to nearby Ebbsfleet International, where usage is considered modest at best. This might be due (in part), to the sizeable London bound commuter population in and around Gravesham, as opposed to domestic passenger use at Ebbsfleet International, from elsewhere in North West Kent.
In December 2008, the local authority for Gravesend (Gravesham Council), were formally requested by Crossrail and the DfT, to sanction the revised Crossrail Safeguarding. This safeguarding provides for a potential service extension, from the current south of Thames terminus at Abbey Wood, to continue via North Kent Line to Gravesend station. The Crossrail route extension from Abbey Wood to Gravesend & Hoo Junction, remains on statute. With current services from Gravesend to London Bridge, London Waterloo East and London Charing Cross being supplemented by highspeed trains from the end of 2009 to London St Pancras, the potential in having Crossrail services from central London, London Heathrow, Maidenhead and/or Reading, terminating at Gravesend, would not only raise the station to hub status but greatly contribute towards the town's regeneration.
Read more about this topic: Gravesend Railway Station
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