Maidstone East railway station is one of three stations in the central area of Maidstone, Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains operated by Southeastern. History Maidstone East was opened as Maidstone by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 June 1874 as the terminus of the line from Otford. The location of the station was determined by local geography, as the ground from the River Medway west of the station rises sharply to the east. Consequently, it was built on a restricted site across from a high-level bridge over the river, immediately before entering the Week Street tunnel. On 1 July 1884, the line was extended eastwards to . In 1899, following the merger of the LCDR with the South Eastern Railway (SER) which operated the Medway Valley line, the station was given its current name to distinguish it from the SER's identically named station which was renamed Maidstone West. Following the grouping of mainline rail companies into regional railways in 1923, the Southern Railway undertook electrification as far as Maidstone East in 1939. Electrification to Ashford was carried out in 1961. The high-level bridge over the Medway was rebuilt in 1927, as the original could not support the full weight of locomotive traffic. A footbridge was incorporated into the new bridge, allowing a shorter route to Maidstone Barracks station. The goods yard comprised ten sidings on the down side and two on the up side. There was a goods shed and a 10-ton capacity crane. West of the high-level bridge, a siding on the down side served a corn mill. In 1939, this siding was electrified to provide berthing siding for electric multiple units. In 1882, the Midland Railway opened a coal depot at the station. Their successor, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway sold the depot in 1934, although it continued to be used for that purpose. Freight services at the station were withdrawn on 13 September 1965. A small locomotive depot was located on the up side. It closed in 1933. During the 1960s Tony Hocking was a booking clerk at the station, locally famous for invariably having a bottle of Vimto visible on the desk despite this being in contravention of the strict railway bylaws of the era. On 2 August 2015,