The Herne Bay & Faversham Railway company was founded in 1857. In 1859 it became the Margate & London Railway, and two years later took the name Kent Coast Railway, by which it was known for the rest of its independent existence. It built a line from
Faversham to
Whitstable Town in 1860, extended it to
Herne Bay & Hampton-on-Sea in 1861 and opened the section from there to a station called
Ramsgate on 5 October 1863. This was much closer to the seafront at Ramsgate than its predecessor,
Ramsgate Town, which was opened by the
South Eastern Railway in 1846. In 1871, the Kent Coast Railway was bought by the
London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The station was very popular and well-used, but was on a cramped site which was reached through a tunnel down a long 1-in-75 gradient. A train went out of control down this slope on 31 August 1891. One person was killed. Plans were made to simplify the poorly connected railway network in the Thanet area; these were quickly adopted by the
Southern Railway company, which took over the London, Chatham and Dover Railway's operations on 1 January 1923 as a result of the
Grouping Act. It built a new line, long, to connect the former Kent Coast Railway route from Faversham and the former South Eastern Railway route from
Ashford, which bypassed both Ramsgate Harbour and Ramsgate Town stations. Two new stations,
Dumpton Park and
Ramsgate, were built on this line to serve the town. After the new line and stations opened on 2 July 1926, the section of line between the new junction and Ramsgate Harbour station was officially closed on the same date. ==After closure==