The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London Victoria[1] and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is part, hence the name) Route Map Termini London Victoria Ramsgate Dover Priory Stations 40 Trains: 377/5 465/0 465/1 466 Line length 116mi63ch Track gauge 4 ft 8+1/2in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Electrification 750 V DC third rail Operating speed 145 km/h ( 90 mph)
And which part of this line are you proposing, considering the Rochester to Faversham section is already in TSW?
Well DTG have previously stated they are done with Kent which presumably includes an extension to SEHS which is what this would be. We have enough Electrostar mileage already in the game, if something like this was to come maybe better done in an earlier era (EPB’s and CEP’s etc.). There are still vast swathes of the UK which have little or no representation in the game and even if we got another third rail route, then something out of Waterloo to the Southwest is more likely.
I'd prefer the line from Charing Cross to Hastings but this would suit me as well. DTG probably won't make the whole thing so I'd say a decent proposal would be Victoria to Gillingham with the Catford loop and the Orpington and Blackfriars branches. They could maybe tack on the section to Faversham but it'd need extensive upgrades to the scenery and stations as they aren't very good. As well as the 377 (which tends to run to Ashford so would only be driveable to Swanley), you'd also need more variants of the class 375, as it isn't very realistic to only see /9s. First class would need to be removed on the 375 and 465 since Southeastern don't offer it anymore. Another selling point of the route could be a Saturday timetable in which the line to Charing Cross is closed, so Southeastern divert some trains into Victoria. There would be Dover and Ramsgate trains that run non-stop between Victoria and Orpington, and Sevenoaks services that would run non stop between Victoria and Petts Wood. This would basically double the amount of traffic on the stretch from Victoria to Bickley.
I don't think DTG's comment about not doing Kent or 3rd rail lines (I can't remember which it was) was a "hard stop", more a reassurance that they had no plans to do another 3rd rail route for the foreseeable. Which was a couple of years ago. I think we will see more 3rd rail eventually once the TSW map is a bit more evenly spread across the UK and this line, along with Waterloo to either Portsmouth or Southampton would be my two preferred new routes on the Southern Region.
They way dtg are doing things lately, I wouldn't be surprised if they done victoria to Rochester with route hop. And excluded both the catford branch and Orpington. I would like victoria to faversham in the 90s but highly unlikely.
