Another new Parkway station opens

Tuesday 1st August 2023

Just beating Portway Park & Ride station (opening this morning) to Britain’s National Rail network is the all new Thanet Parkway station which unlocked its brand new high level platforms and adjacent car park for business first thing yesterday morning.

Located by the village of Cliffsend proposals for the new station have had a mixed reaction in the local area over the years with a split between those who welcome the station and those who see it as a gross waste of public funds.

The station is on the line run by Southeastern between Canterbury West and Ramsgate located between Minster and Ramsgate. It’s served by high-speed trains to St Pancras International supplemented by mainline trains in the peaks providing links to traditional south London termini.

Unlike Portway Park & Ride station which, as recently discussed in a blog, has been added to a long established Park & Ride site served by buses this is a brand new Parkway facility offering parking for 293 cars (with a sprinkling of electric charging points), cycle storage, two bus stops and an extensive setting down and picking up area complete with its own two shelters.

Alongside the new car park, the station has two elevated platforms and lifts which explains why Portway’s measly £5.8 million price tag has been trumped by a whopping circa £40 million for Thanet Parkway, a cost that has almost quadrupled from an estimated £11 million in 2015 – which must have taken some creativity to keep the business case on track.

Funding for this eye watering cost has come principally from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Local Growth Fund (£14 million) and the Government’s Getting Building Fund (£12.875 million) but also chipping in have been the DfT’s New Stations Fund (£3.4 million), Thanet District Council (£2 million), East Kent Spatial Development Company (£700,000) and Kent County Council (£5.8 million).

To ensure the extra two minutes it takes to stop at the station doesn’t impact overall journey times to and from London the station has been built as part of a “Thanet Corridor Enhancements Programme”. This has included a number of initiatives such as Line Speed Improvements (Ashford to Canterbury West, and Chislet to Grove Ferry involving track, signalling and a new bridge) and safety enhancements at foot crossings on the route including new traffic light warning signs and replacement of the old manually operated gates at level crossings at Wye and Chartham.

The level crossing close to the station at Cliffsend has been upgraded from half barriers to four barriers extending completely across the road. Details of all these improvements can be seen in a Network Rail video here.

The mind boggles at how much all these improvements have added to the cost …. perhaps another £40 million or more, making for a total spend of around £80 million … all to provide a car park for 293 cars.

Both new platforms have been equipped with full length acoustic barriers which is rather ironic considering the traffic noise from the adjacent busy A299 is far worse than anything a couple of electric trains passing through each hour will sound off.

What’s worse, the barriers make for a very grey and dour ambience for passengers to endure while waiting for a train and despite their elevation the platforms consequently offer no view of the surrounding area. It feels like something out of a communist era Soviet built station.

What both platforms lack in width (bizarrely just 2.7 metres wide) they make up for in length, being 250 metres long and capable of taking 12 coach trains.

Exit from platform level is down a very long staircase or lift to ground level located at the eastern (Ramsgate) end.

There’s no room for the usual sets of four seats on the platforms due to their narrow width but there are four shelters spaced out on each, built on little suspended alcoves.

There’s also a row of seats in the alcove at the top of the lift and staircase for each platform. Help points and departure screens complete the facilities at platform level.

At ground level, access to the London bound platform 1 is through a refreshed footpath under the railway…

… where there’s a ticket machine in the open with no weather protection along with a departure screen…

… leading to the straight staircase to climb up to the paltform with a lift located further along behind the staircase.

A similar uncovered ticket machine (and departure screen and help point) can be found by the exit/entrance to platform 2 for Ramsgate bound trains.

This is the main entrance/exit to the station leading out to the huge picking up and setting down area complete with two shelters presumably in case your chauffeur is running late.

It seems an odd sense of priorities to provide shelters for passengers in the event of waiting for a lift home but no weather protection for buying a ticket.

There are two bus shelters by two marked bus stops which is wishful planning as no buses serve the station. The adjacent road system, including a no right turn for traffic leaving on to the A299, makes it impractical to divert existing routes.

Buses from Sandwich to Ramsgate, for example, would have to pass the station on the A299 heading east to turn back at the Lord of the Manor roundabout (see above map) for the station, call in there and then head west to the roundabout by the A266 at the western end head along the A299 again to continue to Ramsgate. With the Lord of the Manor roundabout at the eastern end a congestion hot spot at busy times it’s no wonder Stagecoach are ignoring the new facility. After all, buses serve close by Sandwich and Ramsgate stations on the same bus route.

But of course, never mind buses, this is a Parkway station …

… and if our motorist friendly Prime Minister flies by in his helicopter to check out the new facilities he’ll be well impressed with the minimalist landscaped car park …

… laid out in two sections either side of the pick up/set down area. The larger area (above) with 220 spaces including (surprisingly) only a few electric charging points….

… and the smaller area (below) with 73 spaces including an area for blue badge holders.

And that’s it for around £40 million.

293 parking spaces doesn’t sound many to me. Both Worcestershire Parkway and Portway Park & Ride have 500 but in any event I’m wondering, Sunak being “on the side of motorists” aside, whether we really do want to be encouraging more car use to access stations when there are bus services linking the area to stations with more train departure options in nearby Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate. As we continue on our journey to net zero have Parkway stations had their day?

As it is, train departures from Thanet Parkway are half hourly in the peaks and only hourly off-peak to Canterbury West, Ashford, Ebbsfleet, Stratford and St Pancras westbound and to Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate eastbound. This is supplemented by five/six journeys in the peaks to and from Charing Cross and Cannon Street.

As you can see, it’s all very grey but this was how Network Rail’s artist envisaged it would look in the pre construction publicity ….. lots of picking up and setting down, a couple of buses waiting for passengers alighting from the train that’s just arrived. Idyllic.

Finally, travelling to the station yesterday morning I inevitably found the ticket machine at my home station Hassocks hadn’t been amended to include Thanet Parkway as a destination. Fortunately we still have a manned ticket office where Craig was able to sell me a ticket as at least someone had thought to update his ticket machine.

The next new station to open will be Headbolt Lane on Merseyside this autumn. Is it too much to ask for tickets to be available to buy from all channels from the opening day?

Roger French

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