by Adam Williams

Rail passengers across east Kent face long delays and disruption over the weekend of September 26 and 27, as work begins to upgrade Faversham railway station for Southeastern’s new High Speed services.

Buses will replace trains on Saturday and Sunday between Sittingbourne and Selling, Sittingbourne and Whitstable and Sittingbourne and Dover Priory.

Commuters will have their journeys extended by up to 75 minutes and no trains will stop at Adisham, Aylesham, Bekesbourne, Canterbury East, Dover Priory, Faversham, Kearsney, Selling, Shepherds Well, Snowdown or Teynham.

Work taking place at Faversham station this weekend includes extending both platforms one and two by 20 metres at the London end and moving part of the track a metre closer to the boundary to accommodate the 12-car High Speed trains, which begin their full timetable in December.

The work is expected to take around six weeks to complete, but the platforms will remain in operation with restricted access. Subway and staircase maintenance is also taking place, including plans to install lifts for better disabled and step-free access onto platforms.

The first stages of a multi-million pound resignalling project will also see 1950s signalling across east Kent replaced with a more modern computerised system.

Andrew Munden, Network Rail’s route director for Kent, stressed the upgrades are vital for the Southeastern network to cope with the new services.
He said: “These improvements will help improve the overall travelling experience for passengers to and from Faversham.

“In the longer term, they will also bring significant performance benefits for passengers who use the railway between Ramsgate and Rochester. With the upgrades at Faversham, we will have a station, signalling and track which is fit for the 21st century passengers and train services.”

Similar disruption will take place October 17 and 18, 24 and 25. For more information see www.southeasternrailway.co.uk