By political editor Paul Francis

A campaign to stop rail services from Maidstone to the City being axed has received a boost after Kent County Council hinted it could help pay to run them.

The prospect of KCC agreeing to help with a subsidy came from Cllr Nick Chard (Con), the authority’s newly-appointed cabinet member for environment and highways.

He said that while no firm decision had been taken, the county council supported “in principle” the idea and was already in discussions over what level of subsidy might be needed and could be afforded.

Southeastern has announced that from December 2009, it intends to remove all the fast trains between Cannon Street and Ashford International, with the result that commuters traveling from stations like Maidstone East and West Malling will lose all their fast services into Cannon Street via London Bridge.

A consultation on the proposals is due to end on Tuesday, July 21, with any final decision being made by both the Department for Transport and Southeastern.

The proposals have been widely condemned by commuters and a campaign is underway to reverse them.

KCC’s offer of a cash subsidy could give a fillip to that campaign and persuade Southeastern to put the brakes on its cuts.

Cllr Chard said: “We already support bus services that are not considered commercially viable, so it would be adopting the same principle as that. I do think it is important that we continue to maintain a good service to the City through London Bridge and Cannon Street. It is an area of concern and we have agreed in principle that we would give some form of financial support.”

He declined to say how much money KCC could be prepared to put on the table but confirmed the authority did have a figure in mind. “It is not just a case of helping Maidstone but commuters who travel from Malling and Kings Hill.”

Maidstone and Weald MP Ann Widdecombe (Con) and colleague Sir John Stanley (Con), MP for Tonbridge and Malling have both branded the proposed cuts unacceptable and have criticised Southeastern over the plans.

Southeastern says its new timetable would increase capacity in peak services across the network with the introduction of the High Speed One services.

But the move will increase journey times for many Maidstone and Malling commuters as they seek to connect to services from other stations. The hourly fast train presently makes the journey in around 58 minutes.