Ashford International railway station

Ashford International railway station serves Ashford in Kent, England. Services are provided by Southeastern, Southern and Eurostar.

International services use platforms 3 & 4, whilst domestic trains use the original platforms 1 & 2, and a new island (platforms 5 & 6) built when the Channel Tunnel opened. While all tracks are electrified with 750 V DC third rail, platforms 3-6 are also electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead line.

History
The present station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) on 1 December 1842, and became part of the Southern Railway during the grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

Another station (west of the former SER station) was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on 1 July 1884 for services via Maidstone East to London. This only lasted 15 years until 1 January 1899 when passenger services were diverted to the former South Eastern Railway station. Remarkably the complete station (buildings and platforms) survived for handling freight and engineering trains until it was closed and demolished around 1999 for construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the present station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.

Ashford station has been rebuilt on two occasions in recent history. The station layout up until the early 1960s consisted of two through tracks, two through platform loops and two bay platforms accessible from the east for terminating services.

For phase two of the Kent electrification scheme in 1962, the two bay platforms were converted into through platforms whilst the main station buildings on either side of the line were replaced by an overbridge including a booking hall, newsagent and catering facilities.

Although most of the original station was swept away during early 1960s rebuild, two substantial platform canopies dating from the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR) era were retained, albeit without their original wooden valence until the later rebuild of the 1990s. The supporting columns of these canopies were stamped with the date 1908 and the structures were similar in design to the platform canopies that survive at Ramsgate station.

The station was rebuilt as Ashford International during the early 1990s for international services from mainland Europe; this included the addition of two platforms to the north of station (the original down island platform had been taken over by international services).

The majority of the overbridge and platform buildings from the early 1960s rebuild were destroyed during the rebuild of the early 1990s. A small section of the 1960s overbridge does remain however, as an emergency exit between the up island platform (platforms 1 and 2) and the up side car park.

Ticket vending facilities
There are ticket office windows in the domestic booking hall, as well as ticket vending machines. There is a domestic ticket office window in the Eurostar station, staffed during morning peak only. There is also international ticket counter in the Eurostar station.

International services
International services started on 8 January 1996. Before the completion of High Speed 1 in November 2007, twelve Eurostar trains a day called, heading to Paris (7 trains) or Brussels (5). However this number was reduced because of the opening of Ebbsfleet station to 3 trains to Paris and a daily service to Disneyland Paris. A direct train for Brussels was reinstated in 2009. It is not permitted to use Eurostar services for domestic journeys to and from London; however, a high-speed domestic service operated by Southeastern to London St Pancras began on 29 June 2009.

Services
the typical off-peak service is:
 * Southeastern
 * 2tph (trains per hour) to London St Pancras
 * 2tph to London Charing Cross, via Sevenoaks
 * 2tph to London Victoria via Maidstone East
 * 3tph to Dover Priory of which one continues to Ramsgate
 * 3tph to Canterbury West, of which two continue to Ramsgate and one of those continues to Margate
 * Southern
 * 1tph to Brighton via the Marshlink Line
 * Eurostar
 * 4tpd (trains per day) to London St Pancras (set down only)
 * 3tpd to Paris Nord (pick up only)
 * 1 tpd to Brussels Midi (pick up only)
 * Southeastern & First Capital Connect
 * 2tpd to Bedford via the Maidstone East Line to Bromley South and the Thameslink line from Elephant & Castle