A new station in Kidbrooke Village was officially opened on Friday by Network Rail’s chairman, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, with guests from Berkeley Homes, Southeastern and locals.
The build supports a £1bn regeneration project to transform the area into a new community. The station is located right beside the development’s village centre, and will provide the residents of almost 5,000 new homes, and others in the community, a key travel connection to stations such as London Bridge and Waterloo East in under 20 minutes. It is also linked to local buses.
The station was part of a collaboration, having been funded by Berkeley Homes, constructed by Network Rail and will now be operated by Southeastern.
Network Rail’s Investment Director for the Southern Region, Paul Harwood, said: “The new Kidbrooke Station is a great example of Network Rail working together with the private sector and train operator to massively improve an existing station – and some of this being achieved while working within the constraints that Covid-19 has had on construction activity.”
The new ticket office is expected to ameliorate passenger experience through increased capacity, and if the office is closed, ticket vending machines are available on site. The modern take on the ticket hall and station frontage was designed to complement the Kidbrooke Village development that surrounds it.
The historic station dates back to 1895 and was one of the original stations on the Bexleyheath line. Since then, it has been replaced with more modern structures and has had architectural advancements made to support other regeneration projects, before finally being replaced by the recent station building.
Divisional Managing Director for Berkeley East Thames, Karl Whiteman, added: “Ensuring that the homes we build are well-connected is key to our regeneration vision for Kidbrooke Village. We’ve invested over £5m in local transport facilities in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and this new station is a much welcome addition to the local area.”
The official opening took place following strict Covid-19 guidelines and numbers were limited to less than 30.
