Chartham railway station

Chartham
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Chartham Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	Canterbury
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CRT
History
Opened	1859

Chartham railway station serves Chartham in Kent, England. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by Southeastern.

The station is unmanned, but has electronic indicator boards and two automated information booths, one on each side of the station. A ticket vending machine which accepts credit cards is located at the entrance to the Ashford-bound platform from the road, replacing the PERTIS machine that was there previously. A manually operated level crossing is at the south end of the station, by the signal box.

Accident - 9 October 1894

At about 06:30 on the morning of Tuesday 9 October 1894 a waggon of hop-pickers on their way to work at Horton Chapel Farm was struck by the delayed 04:15 down Ashford to Canterbury West goods train. Four people including two children were killed outright with a further two dying in hospital later. In addition, nine hop-pickers were seriously injured.

The investigation found that the waggon driver had left the opening of the gates to children and had failed to stop before crossing. Fog was said to have reduced visibility to around 100 yards [~95m] at the time. The train crew was exonerated having whistled at least three times in the minutes leading up to the accident but there were suggestions that the noise of the workers and waggon might have muffled the sound. The Inspecting Officer, Major General C.S. Hutchinson R.E., criticised the South Eastern Railway for the excessively long rostered hours of the train crew.^[1]

Services

As of December 2011^[update] the typical off peak services from this station is one train per hour to London Charing Cross via Tonbridge and one train to Canterbury West.^[2]