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Departure board (Longfield)
Farningham Road signal box
Kentrail description of station
Longfield Station Facilities
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Timetables
Traveline (rail & bus enqs)

Gallery

Station today

Station in about 1910

Station in about 1930

Station in the 1950s

 The nearest railway station to Hartley is at Longfield.  There are about 3 trains an hour on weekdays and Saturdays and one train an hour on Sundays. Timetable details and journey planners are available from the National Rail website, as is details of the facilities and disability access at Longfield Station.  If you need to combine rail and bus then the Traveline website is the best journey planner.

Longfield Station has two car parks on either side, one owned by the rail company (Longfield side) and the other in private ownership (Hartley side).  There are also facilities for storage of bicycles at the station.

Organisation of Railways
The operation of the railways is split between a number of companies.  Network Rail are responsible for the rail infrastructure and the larger stations like Victoria, while the local trains are run by Southeastern Trains.  Southeastern trains is the trading name of GoVia, a company owned by Go Ahead Bus group and Keolis.  They took over the franchise from the publicly owned company of the same name on 3 April 2006, but they already own the South Central franchise.

Rail usage
The number of passengers travelling annually from Longfield Station has increased over 12 fold in the last 70 years, well in excess of Swanley and Farningham Road.  Excluding Swanley, Longfield is the busiest of all the local stations with almost as many passengers as Meopham, Sole Street and Farningham Road combined.

The breakdown between work and leisure journeys can be estimated by the number of journeys by season ticket, which in Longfield's case in 2008/9 was 54.2% . This is supported by the 2001 census that 926 people in Hartley and Hodsoll Street (284), Longfield and Southfleet (301) and Ash (341) say they travel to work by train, which should suggest that well over half of journeys are for work. Going further back, in 1938 Longfield station sold 728 season tickets, and in 1961 it was 6,319 (3,206 weekly and the remainder longer).By the same figures, Longfield has a higher level of leisure travel than its neighbours.

Station	1938	1961	2002/3	2004/5	2005/6	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9	Percent season ticket travel	Percent reduced fare travel
Swanley	125,275	254,277	616,609	644,447	637,052	662,267	672,923	656,820	51.4%	31.3%
Farningham Road	11,778	32,109	84,848	88,641	88,392	98,989	110,957	105,801	59.9%	23.1%
Longfield	17,277*	65,332	221,175	231,085	231,886	239,401	257,489	255,210	54.2%	31.1%
Meopham	n/a	n/a	131,306	143,029	140,090	152,504	163,155	162,821	60.1%	25.5%
Sole Street	n/a	n/a	40,258	40,337	38,148	43,253	49,865	47,078	60.0%	24.6%

Source: Office for Rail Regulator.  Figures from 2002 relate to the number of station "entries" the ORR also quotes figures for exits which are usually similar.

In addition Revd Bancks quotes a figure of 18,000 for 1926.

Rail Fares

Currently (2009/10) rail fares are allowed by the government to rise by 3% above the Retail Price Index, which is usually the higher of the two measures of inflation.  This has resulted in season ticket fares from January 2011 rising by 8.1% to London terminals, and 8.7% for travelcards covering zone 1.

In 1966 a single fare from Longfield to London was 6 shillings (30p)

In 1963 a weekly 2nd class season ticket to London cost £1.15.0, which is the equivalent of about £24 at 1975 prices.  This had increased to £9.00 in 1977.

An annual 2nd class season ticket to London in 1973 cost £140, about £1,000 at 2006 prices.  However an annual season ticket then actually cost £1,968.

The Timetable since 2008
In February 2004 the Strategic Rail Authority set out its proposals for train travel from 2007, when Ebbsfleet will be opened in "Integrated Kent Franchise: Train Service Specification". Their proposals would have meant little change to the number of trains at Longfield, but substantially fewer at Farningham Road, where there was a vigorous campaign against the proposals, resulting now in more trains in peak hours for them. The revised service pattern following the consultation also gave Longfield with 2 extra peak hour trains to Cannon Street, but these did not appear in the eventual timetable.  Some passengers in east Kent have objected to stops at Longfield, but passenger usage at Longfield more than justifies it.

The big unknown is the numbers who may commute from Hartley to Ebbsfleet with its thousands of parking spaces. The SRA have done research on likely use, but it is "Commercial in Confidence".

History

 Papers in the National Archives on the Change of Station Name (PRO AN157/506)

To:     General Manager
From:   Assitant General Manager (Traffic) Waterloo
Date:   25 July 1960
Fawkham: Station Name

Following advice from the Public Relations and Publicity officer that the station name signs at Fawkham are due for renewal, consideration has been given to the suitability of the present name, which is shown on the boards as "Fawkham for Hartley and Longfield".

Bearing in mind that the station is adjacent to Longfield, it is felt the name should be changed to "Longfield for Fawkham and Hartley", as suggested by the Dartford Rural District Council after consultation with the Fawkham and Longfield Parish Councils.

The deeds relating to Fawkham station have been examined by the Chief Solicitor, who states that he can see nothing in these or in the Act authorising the railway concerned which would prohibit the Commission from altering the name of Fawkham Station.

In the circumstances I would suggest that the station name should be changed, as indicated above, as from the introduction of the summer train service on 12 June 1961.

Will you kindly signify your approval

For Assistant General Manager (Traffic)

2.      (26.7.1960) letter of concurrance by Assistant General Manager (Traffic)

3.      Minute 14,621 of Traffic Officer's Conference dated 16.5.1961 authorised the name change from 12.6.1961.