railroad.wikisort.org - 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
General information
Location	Canterbury, City of Canterbury England
Grid reference	TR146572
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CBE
Classification	DfT category C1
History
Opened	9 July 1860
Passengers
2016/17	1.061 million
Interchange	15,050
2017/18	1.109 million
Interchange	14,172
2018/19	1.144 million
Interchange	16,163
2019/20	1.097 million
Interchange	15,740
2020/21	0.280 million
Interchange	6,273
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by Southeastern.

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]

The station is approximately 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) to the south of Canterbury’s other station, Canterbury West. Both stations are located due west of Canterbury’s city centre; in fact, despite their names, the two stations lie on the same line of longitude.

History

The station and its line were built by the London, Chatham & 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]

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

The station has a ticket office, an electronic ticket machine, a cafe and toilets. A footbridge and lifts were opened in 2021.[6]

Services

All services at Canterbury East are operated by Southeastern using Class 375 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[7]

• 1 tph to London Victoria via Chatham
• 1 tph to Dover Priory

During the peak hours, the service is increased to 2 tph with some trains going to or from London Cannon Street.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Selling		Southeastern Chatham Main Line - Dover Branch		Bekesbourne

Gallery

• 
  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

Sources

External links

• Train times and station information for Canterbury East railway station from National Rail

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