East Kent Railway

The cathedral city of Rochester and the important dockyards of Chatham had no rail link nearer than Strood, on the opposite side of the River Medway.

As the SER was then unwilling to undertake new capital projects a large meeting was held at Rochester on 29 January 1850 to discuss the need for a railway connecting Strood to Dover.

[1] The idea of a new independent railway was adopted, but lack of financial support meant that it would be three years before any concrete scheme could be proposed.

According to Bradley, the SER "exerted great pressure to get the East Kent's Bill thrown out of Parliament on the grounds of non-compliance with Standing Orders, but a petition by over 9,000 inhabitants of the district persuaded the House of Commons to suspend their Standing Orders and allow the Company to deposit amended plans.

"[2] One reason for this special treatment was that the line was then "deemed of great national importance for the defences of the kingdom", as it aided the rapid movement of troops and military equipment between the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, Chatham Dockyard and Dover.

Instead, the enabling act included a facilitations clause which required the SER to handle the EKR traffic "as expeditiously as its own between Strood and London Bridge".

The railway was built as a single track line (with provision for doubling) throughout its 18+1⁄2-mile (30 km) length and but had taken five years to raise the finance and build.

Running powers over the latter railway would then give the EKR access to Battersea Wharf station of the WEL&CPR.

Crampton managed to persuade the EKR board to accept an alternative proposal, that he would finance the westerly extension towards London.

These involved building their own line from Strood to St Mary Cray where it would connect to the WELCPR at Shortlands (then named Bromley).