The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England between London Victoria, and Dover Priory and Ramsgate, travelling via the Medway towns (of which the town of Chatham is part, hence the name).
Services to Cannon Street follow the route as far as St Mary Cray Junction where they diverge onto the South Eastern Main Line near Chislehurst.
Thameslink services to Luton run in parallel from Rainham to Rochester, diverging once across the River Medway at Rochester Bridge Junction onto the North Kent Line via Gravesend and Dartford.
A shuttle service operates on the Sheerness Line which starts at Sittingbourne.
Services
Most services on the Line are run by Southeastern and Southern. Govia Thameslink Railway run some Thameslink services, the first starting from and travelling via on the Catford Loop, joining at Shortlands Junction, travelling to before heading to . The second service starts from and also travels via the Catford Loop to Shortlands Junction, travelling to before heading off to . The final service starts at and goes via , , and to before terminating at Rainham in the bay platform 0.
While travelling between Bromley South and London Victoria, the trains can either travel on the main line, through Beckenham Junction, Herne Hill and Brixton, or via the Catford Loop Line, coming away from the main line at Shortlands Junction, travelling through and , and then just past it either picks up the Southeastern line all the way, or can follow the Southern (Atlantic) Line through before crossing back over to the Southeastern Line to London Victoria. The hourly stopping service is now scheduled to run via , additionally stopping at .
The off-peak timetable consists of two trains per hour from Victoria, calling at , , , , , Gillingham and Rainham. One service will call at , , and , then all stations to via . The other service will just call at and , then all stations to and . These trains no longer split up at . There is an hourly service from Victoria calling at via the Catford Loop, , then all stations to Gillingham. A High Speed Service sees two trains per hour from to via and . One service terminates at before travelling back to via and . The other service continues coastbound as a semi-fast service calling at , , , , and . It then carries on, stopping at , , , , , , and , before picking up the High Speed Line to , and arriving back at . A service operates in the opposite direction. There is one other High Speed Service that runs on a small part of the line, starting from and calling at and before heading to , and , then picking up the High Speed Line and calling at the remaining stations to . A Thameslink service now starts from Rainham and calls at nearly all stations via , , , (for Elizabeth line services), and (both for the Docklands Light Railway), , and beyond. Passengers for , or now have to change at .
Rolling stock
The following trains are operated on the line : Class 465 "Networker" since 1992, Class 466 "Networker" since 1993, Class 375 "Electrostar" since 2001, Class 395 "Javelin" since 2009, and 8-car Class 700 "Desiro City" since 2018.
History
The line was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, who were in competition with the South Eastern Railway (hence the duplication of stations in Kent). They subsequently built lines to Sevenoaks and Ashford (via Maidstone) from the Chatham Main Line.
The line was electrified (750 V DC third rail) in a series of stages. Initially the new Southern Railway electrified the urban (within London) workings of the SECR in the 1920s. In July 1925 "South Eastern Electrification (Stage 1)" saw the line from Victoria to junction with the South Eastern Main Line at Bickley, including the Catford Loop Line electrified. This was extended to outer suburban workings to Sevenoaks via Swanley (Bickley junction to Swanley) in two stages, reaching St Mary Cray in May 1934
See also
- South Eastern Main Line