Strood
The station in December 2017, after refurbishment
General information
Location	Strood,Borough of Medway England
Coordinates	51°23′48.33″N0°30′1.69″E / 51.3967583°N 0.5004694°E /51.3967583; 0.5004694
Grid reference	TQ740693
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	SOO
Classification	DfT category D
History
Original company	South Eastern Railway
Pre-grouping	South Eastern & Chatham Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
18 June 1856 (1856-06-18)	Station opened
Passengers
2019/20	1.159 million
Interchange	0.536 million
2020/21	0.454 million
Interchange	0.134 million
2021/22	0.872 million
Interchange	0.308 million
2022/23	0.990 million
Interchange	0.384 million
2023/24	1.054 million
Interchange	0.455 million
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

Strood railway station serves the town ofStrood inMedway, England. It is on theNorth Kent Line and is also a terminus of theMedway Valley Line. It is 31 miles 11 chains (50.1 km) down the line fromLondon Charing Cross.

Train services are operated bySoutheastern andThameslink.

v t e Medway Towns
Legend
North Kent Line &HS1 toLondon Bridge &St Pancras Chatham Main Line toVictoria &Blackfriars Medway Valley Line toMaidstone 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 toFaversham,Dover &Ramsgate

TheSouth Eastern Railway (SER) had reached Strood in 1845 as the terminus of the line from Gravesend.^[1] In 1856, this line was linked to the existingMaidstone branch fromPaddock Wood,^[2] which had opened in 1844.^[1] The new line left the line from Gravesend between Strood Tunnel and theoriginal Strood terminus; a newStrood station was provided on the Maidstone line, and it opened with the line on 18 June 1856.^[2][3]

The station became a junction with the opening of the first section of theEast Kent Railway (EKR) between Strood andChatham on 29 March 1858.^[4] TheLondon, Chatham & Dover Railway (which the EKR had become in 1859) soon opened their own route fromRochester towards London, the first portion as far asBickley opening on 3 December 1860.^[5] The curve connecting the LCDR line with Strood station fell into disuse (apart from one goods train in each direction per day), but passenger services over this line were reintroduced in early 1877 at the insistence of the Mayor of Chatham. The Mayor's name was Toomer, and the line then became known as the "Toomer Loop".^[6]

Although Strood station was the property of the SER, the Toomer Loop, together with the stations at Rochester and Chatham, was LCDR property. A second junction at Strood was bought into use on 20 July 1891, when the first section of the Rochester & Chatham Extension was opened, by which SER trains reached their own stations atRochester and, from 1 March 1892,Chatham.^[7] This line was to the north-east of, and largely ran parallel to, the LCDR line; it had its own bridge over the Medway. On 1 January 1899 the SER and LCDR entered into a working union which traded as theSouth Eastern & Chatham Railway (SE&CR) and set about eliminating duplicated facilities.^[8] In 1911, a connecting line was put in between the SER and LCDR on the south-eastern side of the SER's Rochester Bridge; this allowed trains from Strood to reach the LCDR stations at Rochester and Chatham from October 1911.^[9] In 1927 (after the SER & LCDR had merged with other railways to form theSouthern Railway), another connecting line was put in between the former SER and LCDR routes on the north-eastern side of the SER's Rochester Bridge; this enabled the LCDR's bridge to be taken out of use.^[10]

Southeastern introduced a full timetable of domestic high-speed services branded Southeastern Highspeed over High Speed 1 betweenLondon St Pancras and Ashford International on 13 December 2009, although public preview services had been running since 29 June 2009. High-speed trains use High Speed 1 calling at Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International. Trains from London to the Medway towns and Faversham leave the high-speed line at Ebbsfleet and continue via the North Kent line through Gravesend, Strood, Rochester. A limited peak hour service now also operates between St Pancras and Maidstone West via Ebbsfleet and Strood.

At the same time there was the largest change to the timetable in the area in 40 years in order to accommodate the extra trains. This meant that rail services from Newington and Teynham were cut, in order to facilitate this new service.To use the train service over the High Speed 1 section of line generally requires payment of a surcharge.

In December 2017, the station received a £2.59 million refurbishment which included new entrances, a larger booking hall and a new waiting room.^[11][12][13]

The station has three platforms; Platform 1 is directly accessible from the station building. Platforms 2 and 3 are on anisland platform. The entrance, ticket office and ticket barriers adjoin Platform 1, with a tunnel from that platform leading to the island. In 2014, a new bridge with lifts was built at the southern end of the station to replace the tunnel and provide wheelchair access to the island platform. As of summer 2015 both the bridge and tunnel are open.

Platforms 2 and 1 mainly handle traffic to and from London respectively, withMaidstone West, Tonbridge andPaddock Wood services terminating at and returning from Platform 3.

Until the early 1980s, an additional entrance to the station was located on Station Road. The entrance was a continuation of the station subway, the external building is still extant on Station Road, although all windows and doors have been bricked up. The building contained a small ticket office.

Services at Strood are operated bySoutheastern andThameslink usingClass 375,395,465,466 and700EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[14]

• 2 tph toLuton viaDartford andGreenwich
• 2 tph toLondon St Pancras International
• 2 tph toRainham
• 1 tph toFaversham
• 1 tph toRamsgate
• 2 tph toPaddock Wood viaMaidstone West

Additional services, including trains to and fromLondon Charing Cross viaSidcup, and two daily return services between London St Pancras International and Maidstone West call at the station during the peak hours.^[15]

The station is also served by a small number of early morning, mid afternoon and late evening services that continue beyond Paddock Wood to and fromTonbridge.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Gravesend		Southeastern High Speed 1		Rochester
				Snodland Peak Hours Only
Terminus		Southeastern Medway Valley Line		Cuxton
Higham		Southeastern North Kent Line Peak Hours Only		Rochester
		Thameslink North Kent Line
	Disused railways
Higham Line and station open		South Eastern Railway Chatham Extension		Rochester Bridge Line and station closed

Media related toStrood railway station at Wikimedia Commons

• Train times andstation information for Strood railway station fromNational Rail
• Old photograph of Strood station from Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre website

• Railway stations in Medway
• DfT Category D stations
• Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856
• Railway stations served by Southeastern
• Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• CS1 errors: ISBN date
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2015
• Use British English from August 2015
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Articles with OS grid coordinates
• Pages with no open date in Infobox station
• Commons category link from Wikidata