Canterbury West railway station is a Grade II listed railway station, and the busier of the two stations in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. The station as well as all services are operated by Southeastern with both main line and high speed trains serving the station. The station and its line was built by the South Eastern Railway and opened in 1846. It was the first mainline station in Canterbury, while the later Canterbury East was built by the

London, Chatham & Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England. It was created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through Lon ...

. There was also a connection to the

Canterbury and Whitstable Railway The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "Crab and Winkle Line", was an early British railway that opened in 1830 between Canterbury and Whitstable in the county of Kent, England. Early history There a ...

, the first railway in Kent, and later to the

Elham Valley Railway The Elham Valley Railway was a line connecting Folkestone and Canterbury in Kent, England. It opened between 1887 and 1889 and closed in 1947. The line was originally proposed by the independent Elham Valley Light Railway Company in the mid-19 ...

; these have both since closed.

Location

The station is north of Westgate and St Dunstans level crossing. Canterbury West is approximately to the north of Canterbury’s other station, . Both stations are located due west of Canterbury’s city centre; in fact, despite their names, the two stations lie on almost the same line of

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

History

South Eastern Railway

The South Eastern Railway (SER) was authorised by an Act of Parliament to construct a railway to Canterbury in June 1836. Local residents were generally opposed to the plan as the SER's lines did not go in the direction that they wanted, and the city was not central to the company's overall aims. They were ignored and construction started anyway, but the rival

(LCDR) decided to promote a line from Chatham to Margate and Ramsgate in response. The station opened on 6 February 1846 when the SER began services to

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a town **B ...

. It was originally called simply Canterbury as it was the only mainline station in the city at that time. A special excursion train ran on the opening date, but was delayed owing to a breakdown at . Following the opening of another Canterbury station by the LCDR on 9 July 1860, it was renamed to Canterbury West on 1 July 1889 to avoid confusion. Two months later on 13 April 1846, services were extended to Ramsgate, and to

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent, England, at the convergence of the The Swale, Swale and the Greater Thames Estuary, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay, Kent, Herne Bay. The town, formerly known as Whitstable-on-Se ...

after conversion of the

and closure of the terminus. The station was built with two central through tracks and three platforms, one for the Whitstable branch. The signalling was upgraded in 1874 at a cost of £1,350 as part of general upgrades along the line. The subway was added in April 1877 after the connecting footbridge had been damaged after strong gales. In October 1878, the SER appealed to the LCDR that they should find a way of integrating the city's two stations, or providing a joint one somewhere else. On 1 July 1889 the

reached Canterbury from Folkestone and at this time the run-in boards read ''Canterbury (SER) Change for Whitstable and Elham Valley Line''.

Later history

The Whitstable branch closed to passenger traffic on 1 January 1931, and traffic from the Elham Valley into Canterbury ceased from 25 October 1940 when the line was requisitioned by the Army. Following the Southern Region Kent Coast Electrification Scheme, Phase 2 electric services started on 18 June 1962. The central through tracks were removed in 1979. Goods services were withdrawn on 31 December 1986. In 1973 the station buildings were

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. The signal box was also listed Grade II in 1986. On 13 December 2009, Canterbury West became part of the Southeastern High Speed service to London St Pancras using the High Speed line from Ashford International, significantly reducing journey times to London. In 2010, the railway station was refurbished to improve the station's accessibility. Funded by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

's Access for All Scheme, the main change was the construction of a new footbridge allowing a step-free route between the station entrance and both platforms using two lifts. Other improvements include new tactile paving along the edge of the platform, new toilet facilities, new customer information screens and lighting, the redecoration of the ticket office and changes to the car park layout. In December 2013, a £535,000 upgrade to the station's forecourt and car park was completed.

Future

The former rivalry between the SER and LCDR meant there is no easy way to change between Canterbury East and West. A proposal for a Canterbury Parkway station, at the place the two lines cross, has been intermittently suggested since the 1980s. In 2018, local MP

Rosie Duffield Rosemary Clare Duffield (born 1 July 1971) is a British politician who was elected as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Canterbury (UK Parliament constituency), Canterbury in 2017 United Kingdom general election ...

suggested the new station would be a better alternative to a new multi-story car park for Canterbury West, which opened in June 2020.

Layout

Canterbury West railway station platforms

Platform 1 serves stations to Ashford and London. The main station buildings are on this side, and have been covered with

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

since their 1846 construction. There is a recessed part of the building in the centre with two

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

fluted columns and pilasters; this is flanked by two storeys and three windows either side. Platform 2 serves Ramsgate and Margate. The platforms are connected both by an overbridge and a subway. Platform 1 houses the main ticket office – there are two counters and three self-service machines, plus a cafe and public toilets. Both platforms have waiting rooms.

Services

All services at Canterbury West are operated by Southeastern using and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to

London Charing Cross Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a London station group, central London railway terminus between the Strand, London, Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South ...

via * 1 tph to

London St Pancras International St Pancras railway station (), officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, F ...

* 1 tph to (stopping) * 1 tph to (semi-fast) Additional services, including trains to and from London Cannon Street call at the station during the peak hours.

Incidents

On 28 December 1874, two men were injured when they fell off the platform in front of an oncoming train. One was killed instantly, and the other required a leg to be amputated. On 23 November the following year, a guard was killed after being trapped between the buffers while on duty for shunting trains. On 1 January 1877, the station roof was damaged following bad weather. On 26 July 1884, several people were injured after a gas explosion at the station.

References

Citations Sources * * * * *

External links

{{coord, 51, 17, 2.63, N, 1, 4, 31.37, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Canterbury Railway stations in Kent DfT Category D stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1846 establishments in England Grade II listed buildings in Kent