Canterbury Parkway railway station is a proposed interchange between the

Ashford–Ramsgate line The Ashford–Ramsgate line is a railway that runs through Kent from Ashford to Ramsgate via Canterbury West. Its route mostly follows the course of the River Great Stour. The line was opened in 1846 by the South Eastern Railway (SER). The S ...

and the

Chatham Main Line The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London VictoriaQuail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is ...

near

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Location

The station would be at the point where the two railways cross at Hambrook Marshes to the southwest of the city centre. Some of the local area is environmentally sensitive marshland and close to the flood plains of the River Stour, though a practical route connecting the station to the main road network has been identified that avoids this. The two lines would remain unconnected, but the station would allow direct transfer between them.

History

The two lines have, for most of their existence, not connected to each other as they were built by separate companies. The line from Ashford to was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1846, while the line from to was opened by the rival

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and nor ...

in 1860. From 5 May 1918 to 21 November 1924, however, a single-line spur was added to facilitate movements of military traffic to and from Richborough Port, with the track itself remaining in place until 1935. It was reinstated solely for military use between 2 March 1941 and 21 October 1951. As a result of flood damage to the line between Herne Bay and Whistable, a double-track connection was opened on 22 February 1953 in order to carry diverted Thanet services. Regular use of the temporary connection ceased on 21 May 1953 and the spur remained officially usable until 4 March 1956, although track-lifting operations had started in October 1955. There have been plans to build a station here since the 1980s. These were reviewed by Canterbury MP

Rosie Duffield Rosemary Clare Duffield (born 1 July 1971) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Canterbury since 2017. Early life Rosemary Clare Duffield was born on 1 July 1971 in Norwich, Norfolk, England and l ...

in 2018. As well as acting as an interchange between the two lines, the station would allow commuters to park away from the city centre, and to make it much quicker and practical to travel between

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

and Ashford, and

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...

and

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British t ...

. The proposals have been supported by the

Campaign to Protect Rural England CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a charity in England with over 40,000 members and supporters. Forme ...

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

expressed interest in the station, but said there were no current funding plans for it and construction could be technically challenging. Kent County Council hope that the station would help reduce congestion in the city centre, which they feel is at breaking point. In 2020, Kent County Council announced the station could cost around £250m and it had shared a pre-feasibility study with Canterbury City Council.

References

{{reflist Proposed railway stations in England Railway stations in Kent Canterbury