Trains At: Ashford International, SEML/HS1, 03/02/24
193A very enjoyable morning spent at Ashford International on the Southeastern Mainline and High Speed 1 where we see plenty of services from Southeastern, Southern and Eurostar.
Ashford International is really a junction station. This I because it has links to the South Eastern Mainline, Marshlink Line and High Speed 1.
The station has gone through several different refurbishments with The first station being built in 1842 by the South Eastern Railway, the station was formally opened on December 1st.
It remained the property of the South Eastern Railway until Southern took control in 1923, once this happened they then renamed the station Ashford Kent.
Once British Rail was introduced in 1948 a lot of the former services were getting changed and newer ones introduced to meet with the growing demand of passengers.
Eventually Network Southeast took over operations when BR privatised its network.
The station went through a major redevelopment when the Kent Electrification Scheme went through its second phase, this resulted in two former bay platforms being converted into through lines and the former station buildings on the left and right of the railway were demolished and replaced with an over bridge that contains a booking hall, newsagents and catering facilities.
The station eventually became known as Ashford International in the 1990's when the plans for the European Services were introduced by Eurostar. This in turn then brought 2 new platforms into the equation to split the regional and international services.
Currently Eurostar don't stop at Ashford. And I haven't got the faintest idea when they are ever gonna restart the service.
My next station is Pluckley.
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Joining me today was East London Transport, please do check out his channel.