Swale railway station - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Swale station) Railway station in north Kent, England

Swale[REDACTED]

Swale Station with the Sheppey Crossing in the background

General information

Location

Kingsferry Bridge, Iwade, Swale
England

Grid reference

TQ912691

Managed by

Southeastern

Platforms

Other information

Station code

SWL

Classification

DfT category F2

Key dates

25 November 1913

Staff halt opened as Kings Ferry Bridge Halt

December 1922

Opened to passengers as Kings Ferry Bridge South Halt

1 November 1923

Renamed Kings Ferry Bridge Halt

1929

Renamed Swale Halt

20 April 1960

New station opened on different site

Passengers

2019/20

8,044

2020/21

3,142

2021/22

10,154

2022/23

11,280

2023/24

8,014

Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Swale railway station is in north Kent, England, on the Sheerness Line 47 miles 15 chains (75.9 km) from London Victoria, at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge which, along with the more modern Sheppey Crossing, connects the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent. The nearest settlement is Iwade. Train services are provided by Southeastern.

Facilities

Map of the Swale Railway Station in relation to other local stations and the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway. The Chatham Main Line runs along the bottom, east to west, while the Sheerness Line branches off northwards, west of Sittingbourne.

Swale is a single platform station with one curving platform. It is immediately adjacent to the A249 road which is on a flyover above the station before it crosses The Swale on the Sheppey Crossing. The station is named after The Swale, the channel which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland and connects with the River Medway to the west and Thames Estuary to the west. North of the station, the railway line crosses the channel on the Kingsferry Bridge. Ridham Dock lies 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of the station.

Swale Station was, for many years, the least-used station in Kent, until, in the 2021/22 statistics, it was overtaken by Kemsing.

History

The station was opened in 1913 as a staff halt, called Kings Ferry Bridge Halt. On 17 December 1922, the Norwegian cargo ship Gyp collided with the Kingsferry Bridge, rendering it unfit for rail traffic, and the station was renamed Kings Ferry Bridge South Halt, and opened to the public, who were able to walk across the bridge to a temporary station at Kings Ferry Bridge North Halt to continue their journeys.

This arrangement continued until 1 November 1923, when the bridge reopened to traffic and the North halt closed. The station was renamed Kings Ferry Bridge Halt on this date. The name was changed to Swale Halt in 1929. With the building of the new Kingsferry Bridge in 1960, a new station was constructed by British Railways on a different alignment, opening on 20 April 1960.

In 2005 the idea of closing Swale station, or at least replacing its train service with a token service (e.g. one train a week in either direction), was proposed by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) but rejected.

Services

All services at Swale are operated by Southeastern using Class 375 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service is one train per hour in each direction between Sheerness-on-Sea and Sittingbourne, from where connections are available to London Victoria, London St Pancras International, Dover Priory and Ramsgate.

Preceding station	[REDACTED] National Rail			Following station
Kemsley		Southeastern Sheerness Line		Queenborough

References

Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations by G.Croughton
"A Kent railway station has just ELEVEN passengers a day". Kent Live. 16 December 2016. Archived from the original on 17 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
^ Kidner, p. 56.
"King's Ferry Bridge seriously damaged". The Times. No. 43217. London. 18 December 1922. col A, p. 9.
"Kent franchise sees service plans revised". Modern Railways. London: Ian Allan. February 2005. p. 5.
Table 212 National Rail timetable, December 2023