Canterbury East railway station

Canterbury East railway station is on the Dover branch of the Chatham Main Line in England, and is one of two stations serving the city of Canterbury, Kent.

Canterbury East
Station building
Location
PlaceCanterbury
Local authorityCity of Canterbury
Grid referenceTR146572
Operations
Station codeCBE
Managed bySoutheastern
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryC1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 1.004 million
– Interchange  21,604
2015/16 1.034 million
– Interchange  19,288
2016/17 1.061 million
– Interchange  15,050
2017/18 1.109 million
– Interchange  14,172
2018/19 1.144 million
– Interchange  16,163
History
Key datesOpened 9 July 1860 (9 July 1860)
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Canterbury East from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Location

The station is 61 miles 65 chains (99.5 km) down the line from London Victoria (measured via Herne Hill) and is situated between Selling and Bekesbourne.[1] All serving trains are operated by Southeastern.[2]

History

The station and its line were built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway and opened on 9 July 1860 as Canterbury. To avoid confusion with the older station also called Canterbury, built by the South Eastern Railway, it was renamed to Canterbury East on 1 July 1889 while the SER station was renamed Canterbury West.[3][4]

Although called Canterbury East, the station is about 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) due south of Canterbury West station, and only about 20 yards (20 m) to its east.

The framework of the platform canopies were originally installed at the never-opened station at Lullingstone.

The semaphore signals at the station were replaced with coloured lights in December 2011. The elevated signal box remains but is no longer in use, with signalling on the line operated from a control room at Gillingham. The signal box was given Grade II listed building status in 2013.[5]

Canterbury East's ticket barriers were removed in early 2011, as they were the only ones of the kind in the country and spare parts were no longer easy to obtain. Work began to install a new gate-line in October 2016. Coventry and Earlsfield are the only other stations to lose their ticket barriers.

The station has a ticket office, an electronic ticket machine, a cafe and toilets.

Services

The typical Monday to Saturday off-peak service from the station is:

  • 2tph (trains per hour) to Dover Priory (of which 1 train calls at all stations and 1 is fast to Dover Priory)
  • 2tph to London Victoria via Faversham and Chatham (of which 1 train calls at Selling and 1 is fast to Faversham)

The typical Sunday service from the station is:

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Faversham or Selling   Southeastern
Chatham Main Line - Dover Branch		   Bekesbourne or Dover Priory
  • Canterbury East Signal Box
  • View in the direction of trains towards London
  • View in the direction of trains towards Dover
  • Station platforms in 2012

Fictional references

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem, a short story in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson hide from Professor Moriarty at a station in Canterbury. The station is unspecified but is likely to have been Canterbury East as Holmes and Watson were making their way to catch a boat on the Continental Express from London Victoria station.

References

Citations

  1. Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. maps 8B, 9B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. "Canterbury East". Southeastern. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  3. Butt 1995, p. 53.
  4. McCarthy & McCarthy 2007, p. 122.
  5. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1413579)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 March 2020.

Sources

  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • McCarthy, Colin; McCarthy, David (2007). Railway of Britain : Kent and Sussex. Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3222-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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