 It has been suggested that the line was truncated simply to deprive the various paper mills and cement plants (which, until that point, had their own sidings at Gravesend West) of their rail connection based on British Rail's "hatred" of private sidings.A coal railhead was subsequently established at Southfleet by APCM, a long-term user of the line, to which coal would be delivered by rail from the Midlands and then transported by road to Gravesend.The depot closed in 1970 following the opening of a centralised APCM plant at Northfleet.