South Eastern Main Line
The South Eastern Main Line is a railway line in Great Britain . It connects London with the county of Kent and the port cities on the English Channel . The suburban and express trains on this route are operated by the Southeastern company; these run in London from Charing Cross , Blackfriars , Cannon Street and London Bridge stations . At Ashford there is a connection to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to the Eurotunnel .
history
The line was built by the South Eastern Railway (SER), which competed with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). The SER received a concession from Parliament in 1836 to build a line from London Bridge via East Croydon , Redhill , Tonbridge , Ashford and Folkestone to Dover .
Between London and Redhill, the SER shared the route of the Brighton Main Line of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway . Parliament had insisted that only one railway line was needed south of the capital. The SER trains therefore had to make a long detour. Parliament's decision ignored the fact that there had been a direct road link between London and Dover since ancient times and that the most direct route possible had also been chosen for other major railway projects. A train passenger to Dover had to cover more than 35 kilometers more than with the stagecoach .
The main line reached Ashford on December 1, 1842, the suburbs of Folkestone on June 28, 1843, and Dover on February 7, 1844. In 1845, the SER replaced its main workshop from New Cross in London to Ashford.
Due to the competition with the LCDR, which had built the more direct Chatham Main Line , the SER built a very expensive connection via Sevenoaks and Orpington through the North Downs , with two long tunnels at Knockholt . This 39 km long "shortcut line" reached Chislehurst on July 1, 1865. The opening of the section to Sevenoaks was delayed until March 2, 1868. On May 1, 1868, the section to Tonbridge was finally opened. In 1899 the SER and LCDR merged to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which brought about a simplification of the track systems in Ashford and Dover.
The Southern Railway, established in 1923, electrified the line with 660 V AC and power rails . In July 1925, electrical operations were started from London Victoria to Orpington. 1926 follow the section from Charing Cross and Cannon Street over London Bridge to Orpington. In January 1935, the electric trains finally reached Sevenoaks. In 1927 the section along Shakespeare Beach, which had previously been on wooden supports, was provided with a retaining wall.
After the Second World War, the state-owned British Rail continued electrification. This was completed in June 1961. At the same time, the electrical voltage on the entire south-eastern route network was increased to 750 V.
In 1994 the Eurotunnel was opened, the northern portal of which is at Cheriton near Folkestone. Since there was no high-speed line on British soil at the time, the Eurostar trains drove after leaving the tunnel on the South Eastern Main Line to Ashford and reached London via Maidstone . The international high-speed trains have been running on the High Speed One since September 2003 .
The sea-side retaining wall along Shakespeare Beach on the section between Dover Priory and Folkestone Central was severely damaged by floods on Christmas Eve 2015, so that operations had to be temporarily interrupted. During the preparations for the reconstruction, further defects in the erection of the original wall were discovered. The restoration work lasted until September 5, 2016.
Shakespeare Cliff stop
Shakespeare Cliff is west of Shakespeare Cliffs at the Shakespeare Tunnel. The unofficial stop was opened in 1913 by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway . It was last used in the 1980s and 1990s by people working on the construction of the tunnel tubes for the Eurotunnel .
See also
literature
- The railways from London to Bristol and Dover . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 22 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig November 25, 1843, p. 348-352 ( books.google.de ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Railway detectives piece together history of Dover sea wall . Network Rail. February 3, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
- ^ Railway between Dover Priory and Folkestone Central closed after damage to sea wall . Network Rail. December 27, 2015. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
- ↑ Shakespeare Cliff Halt . Kent Rail, David Glasspool. Retrieved April 28, 2020
- ↑ Shakespeare Cliff. Channsl Tunnel Works Site . Kent Rail. Retrieved April 28, 2020