Kent Route
Our Region
Our Southern region serves rail passengers and freight operators from Devon in the west, to Kent in the east. The region spans much of the south of England, covering Dorset, Hampshire, East and West Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and South London, as well as the Network Rail High Speed route which carries channel tunnel services.
We are committed to deliver a plan that centres around our passengers, putting them at the heart of everything we do and focusing on improvements which will make a difference to their journeys. As part of this commitment, we’re investing a record £1.25 billion to replace old equipment with new, more reliable technology, giving passengers better journeys with fewer delays.
Our Route
Our Kent route is one of the busiest and most congested routes in the country, carrying over 2,600 trains each weekday. The railway in Kent and South East London is vital to the economic prosperity of the region, carrying commuters in and out of London, and linking major towns and cities such as Canterbury, Ashford and Dover.
The route also serves channel routes to Europe, and has the UK’s first domestic high-speed service, with high volumes of freight traffic, whilst also transporting large numbers of leisure travellers to the Kent coast and other tourist destinations.
Key Station
Charing Cross station in London is one of the busiest stations on our route, handling over 37 million passengers each year!
Our projects
Thanet Parkway Station
Last summer, we opened Kent’s first new railway station in eight years at Thanet Parkway, bringing the capital closer to the coast, and opening up Thanet to new jobs and new business.
The new station development is part of a wider programme to upgrade several level crossings between Ramsgate, Canterbury West, and Ashford International. Thanet Parkway features two 250 metre platforms, and is fully accessible from car park to platform, allowing passengers to travel on our high speed rail network to St Pancras International in as little as 70 minutes.
Upgrading a 175-year-old tunnel
We recently carried out works to replace Catford Bridge, built in 1890, with a modern bridge as part of a £5.5m project. With the older bridge, trains passing over were subject to a 15mph speed restriction, slowing down and delaying services. By replacing it with a modern bridge, we are now able to run trains at full line speed, speeding up services and reducing delays to passengers.
As a result of stringent planning we were able to keep disruption to a minimum, completing the replacement over a single bank holiday weekend where there were fewer services impacted by the works.
Improvements on this line
We’re investing a record £1.25 billion in our South East upgrade project to improve track, signalling, embankments, structures, stations and depots to give passengers in Kent and South East London better journeys, with fewer delays.
As part of this huge project, we’re replacing more than 200km of track and outdated equipment at hundreds of key junctions across the route. We’re replacing and improving our signalling systems in Kent and South East London to reduce delays, investing more than £133m to improve stations and buildings for our passengers and staff, and we’re replacing or refurbishing 135 bridges across our region.
Roles on this route
No roles are available on this route at this time. Register your interest to be notified when we open new roles.