As of November 2021[update], the off-peak service is operated as an extension of the South Eastern Main Line service from Charing Cross to Dover Priory. Trains run hourly terminating at Ramsgate. Services are operated by SE Trains using class 375 units. Some peak trains use Cannon Street or are High Speed 1 services to or from London St. Pancras or the Class 465/466 Networkers are also used in the Peak Hours or in the summer timetable services from London Cannon Street extended to Ramsgate via Greenwich, Woolwich Arsenal and Dartford.[2]
During the late 2010s, the entire off-peak service was run as part of the High Speed domestic service, running in a loop around the coast with trains at both ends continuing towards St. Pancras via Ashford International and Faversham.[3][4] This service was ended after the COVID pandemic massively reduced rail use.[5]
A small number of the peak services run to Minster on the Ashford to Ramsgate line before reversing back onto the coast line as a school service, running Ramsgate-Minster-Sandwich-Deal in the mornings and the reverse in the evenings.[2]
History
The South Eastern Railway's (SER) first main line went to Dover via Folkestone and Ashford. The SER Ashford to MargateBroadstairs and Ramsgate (via Canterbury West) line was then extended south to Deal. In 1881 this was linked up by the "Dover & Deal Joint Railway" with their bitter rival the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR).
Upon the joint management of the SER and LCDR in 1899 the track layout at Ashford rationalised, with Thanet receiving similar treatment (by Southern) in the 1920s.
The line was electrified under the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan, in "Kent Coast Electrification (Stage 2)" opening January 1961.
The building of the railway was significant in the development of seaside resorts like Broadstairs.
Dover track layout
The Railway Clearing House produced a map that shows the complex layout of this area. This shows the separate connection to the pier where trains used to board ferries.
