Does anyone know anything about an apparent threat to close Lenham station on the Maidstone East Line? Apparently there's a petition open against it, and the development
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Is Lenham station under threat of closure?
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Jorge Da Silva
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Does anyone know anything about an apparent threat to close Lenham station on the Maidstone East Line? Apparently there's a petition open against it, and the development
Basically its being moved not closed.
Obviously it is currently "open and green countryside" but there's going to be a development there...Sometimes the people who write these positions need to check it. However yes, it will obviously mean people of the "old town" are worse off as a result if it was to go ahead.
I hardly think a new station opening 2 miles away counts as being 'moved', although it's unclear whether that is the distance by rail or road (if the latter, it may be that there isn't a very direct road route to the new station).
Either way, I can certainly appreciate that the residents of Lenham may be aggrieved, as the proximity of a reasonably served rail station is something which buoys property values - quite apart from the effect on anyone who regularly uses the station.
If it's 2 miles away why not an additional station, rather than closing the established one.
Presumably it's down to not wanting to recast the timetable at Ashford just to add in an extra station stop - bearing in mind this may have consequences on HS1 services (with Ashford only having 2 domestic platforms on that side of the layout) and across the region.
Lenham station doesn't appear to be massively used, despite having an hourly direct service to London, with half-hourly services during the peak. In the ORR statistics for 2019/20 (for an almost entirely pre-pandemic background) it saw 120,000 passengers. With roughly 26 trains each way per day, that's an average of 6 passengers per train.
So I suppose it, and many stations like it, are considered candidates for closure if there is a potentially more 'lucrative' location the train could otherwise stop at.
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They've generally got fairly reasonable turnarounds at both Victoria and Ashford Int'l, so I doubt that would be a major concern.
t_star2001uk
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Just had a read of the plan and it's promoting a new station on HS1....
The relevant piece of text from the aforementioned document, which can be fully digested on page 32 of the previously mentioned and linked to document...
"This will allow the opportunity for potential rapid public transport connections to nearby rail links at Lenham, Charing, and Ashford, or to a potential new HS1 and/ or mainline station within Heathlands itself."
Heathlands Master Plan
The relevant piece of text from the aforementioned document, which can be fully digested on page 32 of the previously mentioned and linked to document...
"This will allow the opportunity for potential rapid public transport connections to nearby rail links at Lenham, Charing, and Ashford, or to a potential new HS1 and/ or mainline station within Heathlands itself."
Heathlands Master Plan
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This is news to me and I have two issues.
First of all, this is the garden of England. For those of you lucky enough to have travelled this line, you will be aware of how beatiful the countryside is around there. Since growing up in the area, it's already been strained environmentally with the construction of the M20 and HS1. It doesn't need a sodding great town in the middle of it.
Secondly, even if they do build the town and open a new station, I'm very much against closing the original station. When visiting friends in the area we often use the train to visit a couple of nice pubs in the village. It looks as though it will be equi-distant between Lenham and Charing anyway, if they must build this town they should build an additional station, not close Lenham.
I'm not fussed if they put a new station on HS1 though.
First of all, this is the garden of England. For those of you lucky enough to have travelled this line, you will be aware of how beatiful the countryside is around there. Since growing up in the area, it's already been strained environmentally with the construction of the M20 and HS1. It doesn't need a sodding great town in the middle of it.
Secondly, even if they do build the town and open a new station, I'm very much against closing the original station. When visiting friends in the area we often use the train to visit a couple of nice pubs in the village. It looks as though it will be equi-distant between Lenham and Charing anyway, if they must build this town they should build an additional station, not close Lenham.
I'm not fussed if they put a new station on HS1 though.
Not to get into a political argument but actually yes we could do with some more houses in an area well connected by rail. New houses will need to be built somewhere and better than being a sprawling estate only accessible by cars as many town extensions seem to be.
The fact they have reasonable turnarounds doesn't necessarily mean that it will work with an additional station stop in the mix.
Yes, but the same could be said about many places. There is a significant scarcity of housing in the southeast. More houses need to be built to even go some way towards addressing this. There are so many areas that you can't build houses - AONBs, protected Green Belt etc. - that the only feasible remaining options will be somewhere that people are going to be unhappy with it.
From the perspective of maximising alternatives to driving, that's absolutely how it should be fine. But sadly that's now how things work in practice; 5000 homes (i.e. around 10-15,000 people) outweigh 3000 people.
I'm not surprised to hear you say that
but I think this suggestion can almost certainly be ruled out!
It should considering it is the only service along the route. I appreciate there might be an additional conflict approaching Vic or Ashford.
That's where the problem would lie. Plus most services actually continue on beyond Ashford so you have to consider the effect of retiming them by ~2 mins east of Ashford.
telstarbox
Established Member
As far as I know Network Rail were ambivalent about this when the promoter approached them, and this hasn't significantly changed since.
You wouldn't know it going by my old home town (Ashford) which seems to have massively expanded in all directions since I lived there. Then there's all that business up in Ebsfleet.
From the perspective of maximising alternatives to driving, that's absolutely how it should be fine. But sadly that's now how things work in practice; 5000 homes (i.e. around 10-15,000 people) outweigh 3000 people.
I'm not surprised to hear you say that
Whatever they do, they shouldn't close Lenham station.
Ebbsfleet is a good example of how this could work. Northfleet / Swanscombe still exist for mainline services and Ebbsfleet and the 'Garden Village' are linked to HS1. With the added benefit of the Fasttrack service for local buses the whole scheme works very well.
Islineclear3_1
Established Member
What about the Lenham loops; are they still used?
Then if the station is closed, what next for Charing, Harrietsham and Hollingbourne?
Then if the station is closed, what next for Charing, Harrietsham and Hollingbourne?
i must admit, that's an area of Kent I'm not greatly familiar with, but if they can maintain multiple stops on the North Kent line, they can keep Lenham open.
Islineclear3_1
Established Member
And the good folk of Lenham will want to travel to and shop in Maidstone. They couldn't do this by train if the proposed new station was on HS1.
Jorge Da Silva
Established Member
Nothing will happen to those stations
Yes there's a mix now - it used to be all Victoria services via Maidstone East terminated there. It is not a heavily congested area though, so probably doable.
Only if they close the current station.
Could this be resolved by terminating short all Maidstone Line trains at Ashford? I know it won’t be popular with Canterbury folk but it would at least make the line more reliable.
Considering that an intermediate station on HS1 is being discussed, I would actually consider building a “Maidstone Parkway” where it crosses the classic line near the motorway services. At present, the Maidstone Line is a rather slow route taking over 90 minutes from London Victoria to Ashford, so having an interchange with HS1 would allow pax from Maidstone East and the new Lenham station to get to London quicker with a single change.
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t_star2001uk
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There is NO mention in the development document or locally about closing Lenham station, only the building of a new station on HS1..
That's good to know.
Of course, we don't know what's been discussed behind closed doors. It might be nothing. However I certainly think it's good to give Lenham station a public show of support to stop anyone getting ideas.
trainmania100
Established Member
Isn't this the sort of thing that happened at Rochester? I've seen an old station thing between there and chatham
Supposedly. But the new Rochester station looks a lot closer to the old one (and still in the current centre of Rochester) whereas this proposed new settlement appears to be about half way between Lenham and Charing, so a station there wouldn't be very near to Lehman at all.
It takes me about 5-10 minutes to walk between the station and the village centre when I go there as it is, and the new settlement would be much further than that.
SargeNpton
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It's only considered to be "moved" if part of the new station footprint overlaps with the old.
If a new station is built two miles away, any attempt to close the existing Lenham station would have to go through the full closure process.
pdeaves
Established Member
Even the short distance 'move' at Rochester went through the statutory closure process (documents here: https://assets.publishing.service.g...ata/file/401215/Rochester_station_closure.pdf). There didn't seem to be any real objection at Rochester (essentially very short distance to a different main bit of town); the different context at Lenham makes it far more likely that there would be objections and a big rumpus.
However, as clarified further up thread, it's moot as the proposal is about providing a new station on a different route, not closing an existing one.
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