Southeastern Stakeholder Forum, Friday 5th April 2024 At the beginning of April, Souteastern welcomed more than 50 stakeholders to an event to update them on their work to build a better, more reliable, and sustainable railway.   Southeastern’s senior management team spoke about how they are reducing delays, improving stations, protecting staff and customers, and…

A change of Chairs for our Medway Valley and Kent Downs Lines. James Willis and Jim Lehane, volunteer Line Chairs for our Medway Valley Line and Kent Downs Line respectively are standing down from their roles. James Willis has held the Chair position for the Medway Valley Line Group for a number of years, bringing…

Essential engineering works on the Kingsferry Bridge will see the line between Sittingbourne and Sheerness closed on a number of dates this summer. The closures will affect both rail and road journeys. Update from Network Rail 19 April 2024 Certain dates of the planned repairs to Kingsferry Bridge this summer have been rescheduled to avoid…

We were proud to be invited by Southeastern to join them at the House of Commons for the launch of their Social Mobility Action Plan. Southeastern said:-   On 4 March, Southeastern, in partnership with the Purpose Coalition, launched its Social Mobility Action Plan in Parliament. We were privileged to be joined by the chair…

In July 2017, Kent CRP were invited to the launch of information boards at Paddock Wood station celebrating the Hop Pickers Line, a former branch line that ran between Hawkhurst and Paddock Wood. The boards made mention of an ambition to create a “Hop Pickers Line Heritage Trail”, a proposed walking and cycling route inspired…

Catch 22 College On Wednesday 28th February we paid another visit to Catch 22 college in Maidstone. Supported by Matt Fraser, Community Relations Manager at Southeastern we presented anti-trespass messaging to thirty students.   We covered how to find the information you need to plan your journey before reaching the station and finding the right…

New Promotional Materials For Kent Community Rail Partnership A lot of things have changed since Kent Community Rail Partnership was launched in 2003.   Over the years we have changed host organisation, added new lines and new communities, and moved into a more digitally enabled age.   A new partnership logo was adopted in 2019…

Kent County Councillors show their support for Queenborough station adopters. On Friday 9th February we paid a visit to our volunteer station adopters at Queenborough to hand over a variety of gardening hand tools to help them keeping the station gardens tidy and attractive for the local community. The station adoption group are part of…

On 29th November 2023 we took a group of thirteen students from Sheppey College to the Travel Safe Travel Smart centre in Margate.   Travel training began as soon as we reached the station with a reminder to keep behind the yellow line until the train has arrived and stopped and to let passengers off…

On a very chilly Sunday morning at the end of November we were joined by volunteers from the Friends of Broomhill park to tidy the public areas outside Strood station.   The team were supported by Medway Council who provided guidance, equipment and arranged collection of the bagged waste. Two hours work by the group…

We were delighted to accept an invitation from Tracey Crouch MP to attend the over 55s Advice and Information Fair at Snodland on Monday 23rd October. We were one of eighty organisations exhibiting at the event, working with Southeastern to share information and ideas to inspire people to Give The Train A Try, promote the…

Kent Community Rail Partnership (Kent CRP) has worked with Southeastern to lay cycle rails on 6 of the station bridge steps along the Medway Valley Railway Line (Strood to Tonbridge). These stations are: Halling, Aylesford, Maidstone Barracks, Maidstone West, East Farleigh and Yalding. Cycle rails allow cyclists to push their cycles along channels up and…