Rainham railway station (Kent)

Rainham railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in South East England, serving the town of Rainham, Kent. It is 38 miles 74 chains (62.6 km) down the line from London Victoria and is situated between Gillingham and Newington.

Rainham
The station looking eastbound, 2017
General information
Location	Rainham, Borough of Medway England
Coordinates	51.366411°N 0.611328°E / 51.366411; 0.611328
Grid reference	TQ818662
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	3 (numbered 0-2)
Other information
Station code	RAI
Classification	DfT category C2
Key dates
25 Jan 1858[1]	Opened as Rainham and Newington
1 Aug 1862	Renamed Rainham
Passengers
2019/20	1.870 million
2020/21	0.456 million
2021/22	1.155 million
2022/23	1.390 million
Interchange	8,960
2023/24	1.530 million
Interchange	7,503
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

v t e Medway Towns
Legend
North Kent Line & HS1 to London Bridge & St Pancras Chatham Main Line to Victoria & Blackfriars Medway Valley Line to Maidstone West Halling Cuxton Strood Rochester Bridge | Strood (1st) Rochester Bridge Goods station Rochester Common Rochester (2015–) Rochester (1892–2015) Chatham Central River Medway Chatham Gillingham Rainham Chatham Main Line to Faversham, Dover & Ramsgate

The station and most trains that call are operated by Southeastern. Following a timetable change on Sunday 20 May 2018, some trains are operated by Govia Thameslink. The station has three platforms.^[2] Platform 0 is an "up" bay platform, used mainly by Thameslink Services. Platform 1 is an "up" through providing services towards London, and Platform 2 is a "down" through for services towards Ramsgate and Dover Priory.

It is sometimes shown as Rainham (Kent) in order to distinguish it from the station of the same name in East London.

Rainham railway station building forecourt front

Crossing road for passengers requiring accessible entrances to interchange platforms

There are accessible entrances^[3] without stairs on both platforms, with step-free access via Platform 1 for services towards London (via main station entrance). Step-free access via Platform 2 for services away from London (via side entrance, short ramp from Granary Close). To interchange platforms, people needing accessible access must use the road and steep paths in excess of 250 metres. (There is also a steep staircase overpass over the tracks to interchange platforms.)

Induction loops are available and ticket counters are able to be lowered or raised. There are also accessible ticket machines in the station forecourt. There are fold-away ramps available on platforms for wheelchair train access.

Services

Services at Rainham are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink using Class 375, 395 and 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[4]

• 2 tph to London St Pancras International
• 2 tph to London Victoria
• 2 tph to Luton via Dartford and Greenwich
• 1 tph to Faversham
• 1 tph to Dover Priory via Canterbury East
• 2 tph to Ramsgate

Additional services including trains to and from London Bridge and London Cannon Street call at the station in the peak hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Gillingham		Southeastern Chatham Main Line		Newington or Sittingbourne
		Southeastern High Speed 1		Sittingbourne
		Thameslink North Kent Line		Terminus

Thameslink Programme

In connection with the rebuild of Rochester Station, a new bay platform has been added on the south side (facing towards London).^[5]
Trains are now able to use this new platform as the East Kent Resignalling Project^[6] has been completed. Initially, only a couple of trains used it in the evening rush hour, but since May 2018, Thameslink trains are now starting from here to Luton, via Gravesend, Dartford and Greenwich. This replaces the Gillingham to Charing Cross services, meaning passengers will have to change at Dartford or London Bridge for Charing Cross or Cannon Street.^[7]