Bexleyheath Line
The Bexleyheath Line is last of the three rail routes created between the outskirts of London and Dartford in Kent. It leaves the North Kent Line immediately on the Down side of Blackheath railway station and travels due east for 8 miles (13km) to a junction with the same line south of Slade Green. There was a line to the south (the Dartford Loop Line) but, in spite of public pressure in the 1880s, the South Eastern Railway (SER) refused to build a line to serve the area between the two lines.
It was therefore another company - the Bexley Heath Railway (BHR), led by railway engineer Alfred Bean (owner of Danson House) - who put forward a scheme for this line, securing the necessary Act of Parliament in 1883. But it took a further twelve years for the scheme to be realised, and it was not until 1 May 1895 that the Bexleyheath Line was finally opened. The BHR soon went into bankruptcy, and the SER were forced to take over the line.
There were originally six stations on the line; one was added subsequently with the growth of the suburban area served by the line. The stations are/were:
- Blackheath
- junction with the North Kent Line east of Blackheath
- Kidbrooke Tunnel [c400 yds (360m)]
- Kidbrooke
- Well Hall: subsequently renamed Eltham Well Hall [1.]
- Shooters Hill & Eltham Park: subsequently renamed Eltham Park [1.]
- [1.] both stations closed and rebuilt as Eltham railway station
- Falconwood opened in 1936
- Welling
- Bexleyheath
- Barnehurst
- here there is a triangular junction with the North Kent Line linking trains with Slade Green carriage sidings and Dartford
- Dartford
Most trains using the line call at all stations (apart from weekday busy periods) and terminate at Dartford.