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Wednesday 14 Sep 2011

MAJOR WORKS STARTS ON DARTFORD STATION UPGRADE

Region & Route:

| Southern

Dartford MP, Gareth Johnson, and the leader of Dartford Borough Council, Jeremy Kite, joined Network Rail, Southeastern and the Homes & Community Agency to mark the beginning of major construction work on the new entrance and ticket office at Dartford station.

Mr Johnson said: “This is an exciting project for Dartford that will provide a much needed improvement to the station. As a commuter myself, I am looking forward to using the enhanced facilities that will be provided.”

The multi-million pound revamp will modernise station facilities, provide better journeys for more than 3m passengers every year.

Funded jointly by the Homes and Communities Agency through Dartford Borough Council and the government’s national stations improvement programme, the work includes:

- Demolition of the existing station building and re-constructing an eye-catching new three-storey structure

- Creating a new concourse and ticket office to make it easier for passengers to move around
- Installing better facilities at ground level, including new toilets, improved retail facilities and passenger information
- Creating more parking bays and a more open environment at the front of the station.
- Extending the canopies on both platforms and installing new waiting facilities on platforms 1 and 2
- Repairs and re-gauging of platform 1 and 2 to reduce the gaps between the platform and the train. The work also includes re-surfacing and improvements to the surface water drainage

Councillor Jeremy Kite, leader of Dartford Borough Council said: “The improvement of Dartford station cannot come soon enough for the residents and commuters of the town. It’s wonderful to see the work finally underway and I can’t wait for local people to be able to use the new station.”

Dave Ward, Network Rail’s route director for Kent, said: “The upgrade of Dartford station is a big step forward and will make a big difference for the community. We want more people to choose to travel by train, which means we need to give passengers the end-to-end journey experience they expect. This starts with providing a station environment and modern facilities which meet their needs.”

Vince Lucas, Southeastern’s service delivery director added: “Dartford is one of our busiest stations and deserves an environment to match. This project will help provide our passengers with a better experience when travelling by train and help area around the station. We will be working hard with Network Rail to ensure that there is minimal disruption to our services.”

The station will remain open to passengers throughout the construction with no disruption to the train services. A temporary station entrance and ticket office will be created to allow passengers to continue safely using the station during the 15 month construction period.

The work, which is being delivered by Osborne on behalf of Network Rail, is scheduled to be completed by Winter 2012.