Rail services between Ebbsfleet International and Ashford faced serious disruption on Friday evening after a fire broke out underneath a railway bridge near Ebbsfleet, prompting an emergency response from the fire brigade and temporary suspension of services on the line.

The incident was first reported by Southeastern at approximately 5:00pm, with trains between Ebbsfleet and Ashford halted as firefighters attended the scene. The blaze was brought under control shortly afterwards, but services were unable to resume immediately due to safety checks on the bridge structure.

Replacement buses were deployed to ease the disruption, with the first vehicles arriving at Ashford at 18:20 and Ebbsfleet at 18:45, Southeastern confirmed on X (formerly Twitter). Passengers were also advised they could reroute via Ramsgate and Faversham to travel between the affected stations.

Service Resumption

At 7:15pm, Southeastern confirmed the line had reopened, but trains would run at a reduced speed over the affected bridge while further assessments were carried out. Passengers were warned to expect residual delays as services gradually return to normal.

“We will work to get trains back to normal as soon as we can once the line opens,” Southeastern said in a statement.

Dartford Signalling Issues

Separately, a signalling fault at Dartford earlier in the day also caused disruptions, rendering Platforms 1 and 2 unusable for over two hours. Although the issue was resolved by late afternoon, Southeastern advised that delays of up to 5 minutes could still affect some services, and full repairs would not be completed until after the end of service tonight.

Passengers experiencing significant delays were encouraged to use Southeastern’s Delay Repay scheme.

Advice to Passengers

Rail users are urged to check live service updates via Southeastern’s website or app before travelling and to allow extra time for journeys due to ongoing disruption.

Further updates are expected later this evening as services across the region stabilise.