I've caught the train from Canterbury stations to Southend stations, route: via Gravesend/Tilbury a few times to get to Southend Airport and football games away at Roots Hall, though the last time was 2014.
It's a fair bit cheaper than via Stratford (looking at BR Fares it's £18.20 off-peak day return instead of £28.60, with a Gold Card). As the previous poster said, the bus is £1 each way if you hold a train ticket, and I think I paid for the ferry too at around £3 return.
Not quite, if you already hold an appropriate VIA TILBURY/GRAVESEND routed ticket (previous TILBURY EXCL FERRY) then you don't need to pay for the bus.
The bus is ran by Ensign Bus on behalf of c2c for the bit between Tilbury Town and Tilbury Riverside, with a commercial element for the route route the Tilbury ASDA Circular (there used to simply be a chartered minibus that just ran on a schedule before the service was improved).
If you come off the ferry at Tilbury having boarded at Gravesend but don't already hold a rail ticket, then you can't purchase the rail ticket at Tilbury Riverside Jetty, but you can buy a bus ticket for £1 and use this as part payment at Tilbury Town station where a rail ticket would need to be bought.
Technically rail tickets going to/from Tilbury Town are still marked "Tilbury Stations" so includes Tilbury Riverside. So this is why the bus is free provided you hold a rail ticket. (Otherwise it's just be a free bus).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I use to use Tilbury Riverside right up to when it closed. I always remember various Emu's being stored there. I don't know if that was long term or just off peak times.
The ferry use to be run by British Rail.
It looks like you can still buy tickets that use the bus and ferry.
No you can't. There are tickets that are routed that way (might as well be marked NOT VIA LONDON) but they don't actually include the fare for the ferry.
Fares for the ferry are located here on the Thurrock Council website:
https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/ferry-services/tilbury-to-gravesend-ferry-service