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Mid-Kent line / Hayes line
A SoutheasternClass 465 at Hayes station
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Lewisham Hayes
Stations	10
Service
Type	Commuter rail,Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Southeastern
Rolling stock	Class 376 "Electrostar" Class 465 "Networker" Class 466 "Networker" Class 707 "Desiro City"
History
Opened	1857
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	750VDirect Currentthird rail
Operating speed	60 mph (97 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e Mid-Kent line (Hayes line)
Legend
South Eastern Main Line toCharing Cross Greenwich Park branch line toNunhead ProposedBakerloo line extension toElephant & Castle Lewisham North Kent Line toRochester South Eastern Main Line toCharing Cross South Eastern Main Line toDover Priory Ladywell Catford loop line toBrixton Catford Bridge Catford Catford loop line toShortlands Lower Sydenham Chatham Main Line toFaversham Beckenham Junction New Beckenham New Beckenham (1864–1866) Chatham Main Line toLondon Victoria Crystal Palace line toStreatham Hill Clock House Elmers End Woodside Woodside & S. Croydon Joint Railway toSanderstead Carriage depot (closed 1993) Addiscombe Eden Park West Wickham Hayes

TheHayes line,^[1][2][3] originally and in some uses still known as theMid-Kent line,^[4] is a British railway line running from Courthill Loop North junction^[5] (just south ofLewisham station) toHayes railway station in theLondon Borough of Bromley. Originally known as the Mid-Kent Railway, it became known as the Mid-Kent Line. It has increasingly become to be known as the Hayes Line however, with none of the line in the present-day county ofKent.

• Services commence at eitherCharing Cross viaWaterloo East, orCannon Street.
• London Bridge – North Kent Junction,Bermondsey: The pioneerLondon and Greenwich Railway opened its line on 8 February 1836. This section is built on a brick viaduct
• North Kent Junction –Lewisham: opened 30 July 1849 as the North Kent Railway, now called theNorth Kent line. Most of the railway here is in cutting with the four tracks passing throughSt Johns railway station, the two northernmost leading into Lewisham station.
• Lewisham –New Beckenham: opened 1 January 1857 as the Mid-Kent line. This opening created a junction at Lewisham.
• New Beckenham –Elmers End: opened on 1 April 1864 as part of an extension of the Mid-Kentline toAddiscombe
• Elmers End – Hayes: this section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway on opening day, 29 May 1882

All services along the line are operated bySoutheastern. The standard off-peak service is four trains per hour (tph) each way betweenLondon Charing Cross and Hayes, two non-stop betweenLondon Bridge andLadywell, and two that stop additionally atLewisham.

The existing Mid-Kent line consists of three sections built at different times. The Mid Kent Railway was built by theMid-Kent and North Kent Junction Railway (MK&NKJR) and was opened on 1 January 1857 fromLewisham (where the existing station was closed and a new station re-opened at the junction) as far asBeckenham Junction (although it was not technically a junction as theWest End of London and Crystal Palace Railway’s line did not open until 3 May 1858). From opening the line was worked by theSouth Eastern Railway (SER) and served new stations atLadywell,Catford Bridge,Lower Sydenham and Beckenham (Junction).^[6]

Seven years later the MK&NKJR built an extension from a new junction station atNew Beckenham toCroydon (Addiscombe Road) which again was operated by the SER.^[7] The line diverged from the 1857 line to the west of Beckenham Junction and a new station was built in the junction area. This was re-located northwards two years later.

In September 1866 a short spur was opened from the north end of Ladywell station to the recently openedSouth Eastern Main Line avoiding Lewisham station, which it joins at Parks Bridge Junction.^[8]

The Elmers End – Hayes section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway in 1881, opening on 29 May 1882. Intermediate stations were opened atEden Park andWest Wickham.

Clock House station was opened in June 1890.

In 1898 the South Eastern Railway and its bitter rivals theLondon Chatham and Dover Railway agreed to work as one railway company under the name of theSouth Eastern and Chatham Railway and thus the stations became an SECR stations.

The original Lower Sydenham station was closed and moved half a mile south in 1906 in an attempt to develop a new area for housing.

On 14 June 1913 members of theSuffragettes movement planted a bomb which was discovered in the ladies waiting room atEden Park railway station. Theclockwork mechanism had stopped working and so it didn't go off. This event followed the death ofEmily Wilding Davison six days earlier after her attempt to stop the King's horse atThe Derby.^[9]

Following theRailways Act 1921 (also known as the Grouping Act), the Mid-Kent line came under the control of theSouthern Railway. The line waselectrified with otherSECR suburban routes in 1926.

Hayes, West Wickham and Elmers End stations were all damaged by enemy bombs during theSecond World War, in 1940.^[10]

After World War II and following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the line became part ofBritish Railways Southern Region.

In 1956 platform lengths were extended to accommodate 10-car trains.

During the 1960s the local goods yards at Catford Bridge, Lower Sydenham, Clock House, Elmers End, West Wickham and Hayes all closed as did the gas works internal railway at Lower Sydenham.^[10]

Colour light signalling was introduced south of Ladywell (as far as New Beckenham) on 4 April 1971.^[11] The line was fully converted to colour light operation in September 1975 under the control of London Bridge Signalling Centre. The old mechanical signal boxes closed at this time.^[12]

Upon sectorisation in 1982, the line came under the control of the London & South East sector, which was renamedNetwork SouthEast in 1986.^[13]

Goods services were withdrawn in 1964 with the exception of Beckenham Junction which survived until 1982.^[14]

During the planning of theLondon Underground Fleet line, now theJubilee line, it was suggested that the Mid-Kent line be taken over. However a more northerly alignment was instead taken. The section from Elmers End to Addiscombe was closed in 1997 and taken over byTramlink operations.

Since the late 2000s,Transport for London (TfL) has been planning an extension of theBakerloo line fromElephant & Castle toLewisham viaOld Kent Road.^[15] Following completion of the Lewisham extension, TfL proposes extending the line over the existing National Rail line to Hayes and Beckenham Junction, adding an additional 10 stations to the line.^[16] The line would have to be converted for the Bakerloo line; TfL has stated that all stations along the line would be made step-free from street to train.^[17] Bromley Council is supportive of the extension to Lewisham, but does not support the extension to Hayes and Beckenham Junction.^[18]

Due to the financial situations resulting from theCOVID-19 pandemic, work to implement the extension is currently on hold.^[19][20] In March 2021, TfL's finance chief stated that the extension would not be seen in the next decade.^[21]

51°24′57″N0°02′07″W / 51.4158°N 0.0353°W /51.4158; -0.0353

• Transport in the London Borough of Lewisham
• Transport in the London Borough of Bromley
• Railway lines opened in 1857
• Railway lines in London
• Standard gauge railways in London
• 1857 establishments in England

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