Station code AYL DfT category F2 Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference TQ720586 2011/12 98,924 | |
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Address Aylesford ME20 7JL, United Kingdom Similar New Hythe railway station, Barming railway station, Hollingbourne railway station, Bearsted railway station, West Malling railway st | ||
Aylesford railway station first opened on 18 June 1856. It is on the Medway Valley Line in Kent, England, and serves Aylesford. Train services are provided by Southeastern.
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History
Aylesford was opened by the South Eastern Railway, which merged with local rival London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 January 1899 to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). The station became part of the Southern Railway during the Grouping of 1923, and passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.
When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.
The ticket office, in a building on the northbound platform, closed in September 1989 and an Indian restaurant—now incorporating a fried chicken takeaway—was subsequently established in the building, which had been extensively renovated in a prizewinning scheme in 1988. In 2007, a PERTIS (Permit to Travel) ticket machine was installed just inside the entrance to the station, on the northbound platform. In early 2016 the Permit to Travel machine was removed with plans to replace it with a ticket machine.
Services
The typical off-peak service from the station is two trains per hour to Maidstone West, with alternate trains extended to Paddock Wood and Tonbridge, and two trains an hour to Strood, for connections to London.
Station Building
The section of the line surrounding Aylesford Station passes through what was part of the Preston Hall Estate, the then home of Edward Betts, the railway contractor who built this part of the Medway Valley Line. Consequently, the station building is much grander than other country stations along the line. The station buildings are gabled and highly decorated, built in Kentish ragstone with Caen stone dressings, in part reflecting a simplified version of the style of Preston Hall. Windows replicate those at Aylesford Priory.
Following restoration and refurbishment, the station building received an Ian Allan award in 2001, commemorated by a plaque in the waiting room/booking office, which is now in use as an Indian Takeaway Restaurant.