The first plan for a station near Wye was in 1812, when John Rennie the Elder proposed building a canal to connect the River Medway in North Kent with the River Rother in East Sussex. A tramway would connect Wye to the canal. The proposal was abandoned in favour of through railways.[1]
The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1846, along with the rest of the line from Ashford to Canterbury West.[2][3] It was a constructed next to a level crossing with the main road, on the grounds that Parliament believed trains would not be frequent.[4] A crane for goods traffic was installed in 1852.[5] The station began serving local gravel goods traffic in 1919.[6] Freight facilities were closed on 10 June 1963.[7]
Racecourse station
On the opposite side of the level crossing a separate station was opened in March 1882 to serve the racecourse. It was closed in May 1974 (with the last horse racing meeting) and subsequently demolished.[8]
Facilities
The platforms were connected by a concrete footbridge in 1960. This was replaced with a 12.5-metre (41 ft) steel footbridge in 2015.[9] The staffed level crossing at the south end of the station required manual operation of the gates and was formerly a local traffic bottleneck[10] but was replaced with automated crossing gates in December 2022.[11]
The station is staffed for part of the day. There is a passenger-operated ticket machine located on the Ashford-bound platform, by the footbridge.[12]
The station buildings on the Ashford-bound platform contain the booking office. There is a shelter on the Canterbury-bound platform.[13]
