Kent Past
The History of Kent
Copyright Kent Past 2010
History of East Kent Railway
he East Kent Railway (EKR) was incorporated in 1853 for the construction of a line
from the South Eastern Railway's (SER), North Kent line at Strood to the city of
Canterbury. Extensions to the line were also sanctioned: eastwards to St Mary Cray
to connect with the Mid-
In 1850, the
railway provision in the north of the county of Kent was very poor. It was 102 miles
by the main SER route from London to Margate and Deal; Rochester and Chatham, important
towns even at that date, were only served by the branch line from the SER main line;
and Faversham, Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey had no railway communication
at all. A large meeting was held at Rochester on 29 January 1850 to discuss the need
for a railway connecting Strood to Dover. Although the idea of an independent railway
was adopted, the plans came to nothing; eventually, three years later the EKR came
into being.
The construction of the line took a long time: it was not until March
1858 that the section from Strood was opened as far as Faversham and that was single
track line (with provision for doubling) throughout its length. That line was only
18.5 miles in length, and had taken five years to build. The service was only five
trains per day in each direction, with a journey time of 50 minutes.
The slow progress
of construction was because of the perilous financial state of the EKR throughout
is existence. Contractors were often left unpaid; although the schemes for the extensions
were going ahead. One problem was that the SER obstructed the work; it even refused
to handle EKR traffic. This led to the latter seeking a different route into London:
the opening of the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway (WELCPR) and the
Mid-
All
that remained was the Act authorising the EKR extension to St Mary Cray, and this
was granted in 1858: in the following year, the East Kent Railway changed its name
to the London, Chatham and Dover Railway
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