Gravesend railway station serves the town of Gravesend in north Kent, England. It is down the line from . Train services are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink. During Christmas 2013, a major overhaul of the lines and platforms changed the four track, two platform layout into two through lines and a western facing bay platform. History The first railway line to arrive in Gravesend was the Gravesend & Rochester Railway (G&RR) who had purchased the Thames and Medway Canal and its tunnel between Strood and Higham. The G&RR ran the first train to the then terminus at Gravesend (adjacent to the Canal Basin) on 10 February 1845. On 30 July 1849 the line was extended to North Kent East Junction on the South Eastern Railway (SER) and thence to London Bridge. There was a second Gravesend station (later known as Gravesend West Street then later still Gravesend West) opened by SER's rivals, London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LCDR). It was the end of a branch off the LCDR's main line and it allowed access to Victoria. Journey times were uncompetitive and, when the two companies combined in 1899, the branch was soon relegated to a secondary line and closed in 1968. To differentiate from this other station, Gravesend was named Gravesend Central for a long time. High speed HS1 services to London St Pancras International were introduced in December 2009 and proved highly successful. The station is now seen as a major interchange for metro and high speed services. There is far greater customer patronage for high speed services to St Pancras from Gravesend in comparison to nearby Ebbsfleet International, where usage is considered modest at best. This might be due (in part) to the sizeable London-bound commuter population in and around Gravesham, as opposed to domestic passenger use at Ebbsfleet, from elsewhere in North West Kent. Additionally services between Maidstone West and London St Pancras have since been added to SouthEastern's High Speed route, which stop at Strood and Gravesend prior to joining the high speed lines at Ebbsfleet. In 2013 a £19 million overhaul of the station, platforms and lines involved the demolition of a former water tank base on the southern platform of the station (Platform 1 at this time), the installation of a new lift/stair bridge complex towards the western end of the station, the removal of the early 20th century footbridge that spanned the lines