Train Nerd

I commuted to London by train for 16 of the 17 years that I have lived in this area. As you come into Tonbridge you go under a couple of pedestrian bridges over the many lines.

Today I achieved a long held desire to cross them and this is the view from one of the bridges towards the station Its more interesting viewed large. To see the bridge I was standing on which is pretty long, click here. If you open the map you will see the bridges marked.

Tonbridge is the junction of the first London to Dover line from Victoria that reached Tonbridge in 1842 and the later and more expensive line from London Bridge that involved tunelling through the North Downs at Sevenoaks and reached Tonbridge in 1868, after bitter feuding between the different railway companies. From Tonbridge you can go east to Dover and Folkestone or south to Hastings. It is this choice of lines which means lots of trains and makes Tonbridge a popular commuter station. We used to get the impressive Eurostar trains whizzing through without stopping but the route was diverted to North Kent and the new station at Ebbsfleet leaving us only with the regular uninspiring South Eastern trains.