Rochester railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the town of Rochester, Kent. It is 33 mi down the line from London Victoria and is situated between Sole Street and Chatham. The station and most trains that call are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink, including a handful of peak services to and from Bedford operated by the latter. In December 2015 a new station on Corporation Street opened 500 m to the west of the original station which it replaced. It is now closer to the town centre and its historic buildings.

Original station

The first station opened as part of the London Chatham & Dover Railway in 1892. It was set back some distance from the High Street to the east of the busy junction at Star Hill, and access to the platforms was via tunnels from the ticket office. The station buildings and platforms were taken out of use in December 2015.

New station

In 2013, Medway Council approved plans submitted by Network Rail to construct a new station for a cost of £26m. On 16 January 2014 Gallagher Ltd cast the reinforced concrete base slab for a new subway for the station with construction continuing into 2015. According to the billboards adjoining the station site, the 900 t concrete subway was to be the first part of the project to be completed; this took place over Easter 2015. Office of Rail Regulation confirmation of the closure of the old station were exhibited at Charing Cross station and elsewhere in October 2015. The new station was opened for passenger use on 13 December 2015 with its official opening by the Duke of Kent on 24 February 2016.

Layout

Platform 1 serves trains towards Strood, Gravesend, Ebbsfleet International, Dartford, Meopham, Bromley South into London. Platform 2 serves trains towards Gillingham, Faversham, Margate, Ramsgate, Canterbury East, Dover Priory, and Ashford International via Sandwich and Deal. Platform 3 has now opened up at a through platform, service trains towards Gillingham, Faversham, Ashford International and the Kent Coast. Trains can also terminate here before heading back towards London. As the through line runs all the way through Platform 4 of the old Rochester station, it can be used to hold long freight services to allow passenger services to pass, removing a bottleneck.

Services

Services at Rochester are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink using, , , and EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: Additional services, including trains to and from London Charing Cross via Sidcup, and fast trains to and from London Cannon Street call at the station during the peak hours.