Dover Priory railway station

Dover Priory railway station is the southern terminus of the South Eastern Main Line in England, and is the main station serving the town of Dover, Kent, the other open station being Kearsney, on the outskirts. It is 77 miles 26 chains (124.4 km) down the line from London Victoria. The station and all trains that call are operated by Southeastern. This station is a 25 min walk away from the Ferry Port.

Dover Priory
The station entrance
LocationDover, District of Dover
England
Grid referenceTR313415
Managed bySoutheastern
Platforms3
Other information
Station codeDVP
ClassificationDfT category D
History
Opened22 July 1861
Passengers
2015/16 0.884 million
 Interchange  55,963
2016/17 0.831 million
 Interchange  51,396
2017/18 0.946 million
 Interchange  69,273
2018/19 0.995 million
 Interchange  84,637
2019/20 0.975 million
 Interchange  91,217
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
Railways in Dover
Charlton Tunnel
 Dover Priory
Dover Harbour Tunnel
 Dover Harbour
 1861–1927
Mileage Change
↑ 77 mi 76 ch (Victoria)
↓ 76 mi 50 ch (Charing Cross)
Hawkesbury Street Junction
connection to train ferry
Pier Junction
Admiralty Pier
 1860–1909
Dover Marine/Western Docks
 1909–1994
Dover Town
 1844–1914
Archcliffe Junction

History

Dover Priory opened on 22 July 1861[1] as the temporary terminus of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). It became a through station on 1 November 1861, with the completion of a tunnel through the Western Heights to gain access to the Western Docks area, where LCDR created Dover Harbour station[1] The station was known as Dover Town but was renamed in July 1863 (leading to rival SER to adopt the name for one of its Dover stations).[1]

In 1868 stationmaster Edward Walsh(e) was murdered by 18-year-old Thomas Wells, a porter for the LCDR,[2] after having rebuked him for poor work. Wells was convicted and hanged.[3]

The Southern Railway consolidated passenger services at Priory in 1927 and modernised the station between 1930 and 1932[4] at a cost of £135,000 (equivalent to £9,440,000 in 2019).[5] The new station re-opened on 8 May 1932.[6]

The Chatham Main Line into Priory was electrified under British Railways in 1959 as part of Stage 1 of Kent Coast Electrification, under the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan.[7] The line up to Ramsgate, via Deal, was subsequently electrified under stage two of Kent Coast electrification in January 1961.[7] The line from Folkestone into Priory was electrified in June 1961.[7]

The high-speed service to London St Pancras started in 2009,[8] after the track in the tunnels to the south was realigned to allow for emergency evacuation from rolling stock without end doors.

Services to and from Folkestone Central were suspended on 24 December 2015 due to major damage to the track and sea wall near Dover harbour caused by strong winds and tidal surges.[9] A replacement bus service was in operation between the two stations, along with a modified timetable whilst repair work was carried out. This was expected to continue throughout 2016, whilst a new £44.5 million viaduct was constructed to replace the present rail embankment and sea wall.[10] The project was scheduled for completion in December 2016, but progressed faster than originally anticipated – the line reopened on 5 September 2016.[11]

Services
A 1908 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Dover
A high speed service to St Pancras

As of September 2016 the off-peak service in trains per hour is:

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Folkestone Central   Southeastern
High Speed 1
London-Sandwich		   Terminus
    Martin Mill
Folkestone Central   Southeastern
South Eastern Main Line		   Terminus
Folkestone Central   Southeastern
Kent Coast Line		   Martin Mill
Terminus   Southeastern
Chatham Main Line - Dover Branch		   Kearsney
    Canterbury East
Disused railways
Kearsney
Line and station open		   British Rail
Southern Region
Chatham Main Line - Dover Branch		   Dover Marine
Line and station closed
  British Rail
Southern Region
Chatham Main Line - Dover Branch		   Dover Harbour
Line open, station closed

See also

References
  1. "Dover Priory Station". Dover - Lock and Key of the Kingdom. 2007. Archived from the original on 7 February 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
  2. Charles Hindley (1871). Curiosities of street literature, comprising "cocks," or "catch pennies": a large and curious assortment of street-drolleries, squibs, histories, comic tales in prose and verse, broadsides on the royal family, political litanies, dialogues, catechisms, acts of Parliament, street political papers ... Reeves and Turner. p. 239.
  3. Steve Fielding (1994). Hangman's Record 1868-1899. 1. Chancery House. p. 2. ISBN 0-900246-65-0.
  4. David Glasspool (2007). "Dover Priory". Kent Rail. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
  5. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  6. "New Priory Station Opened". Dover Express. England. 13 May 1932. Retrieved 26 June 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. "Electric Railways". 'Stendec Systems'. 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  8. "Dover gets high-speed CTRL trains". BBC News. 14 July 2006. Retrieved 14 July 2006.
  9. "Railway between Dover Priory and Folkestone Central closed after damage to sea wall"Network Rail Media Centre 27 December 2015; Retrieved 5 February 2016
  10. "Dover to Folkestone railway expected to reopen in December"Network Rail press release; Retrieved 8 April 2016 Archived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Dover to Folkestone railway to reopen on Monday, 5 September, three months ahead of schedule."Network Rail press release 22 August 2016; Retrieved 25 August 2016

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