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

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a 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. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

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 ...

, England. The station as well as all services are operated by

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

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 created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

. 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 Ther ...

, the first railway in Kent, and later to the Elham Valley Railway; these have both since closed.

Location

The station is to the northwest of

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

and 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 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 let ...

History

South Eastern Railway

The South Eastern Railway (SER) was authorised by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

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 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 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 ...

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 Elham Valley Railway 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 or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

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, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. 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 department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

'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 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 ...

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

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 or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...

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

Doric order The Doric order was 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 c ...

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

using and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only 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 central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashf ...

via * 1 tph to London St Pancras International * 1 tph to (all stations) * 1 tph to (semi-fast) During the peak hours, the station is also served by trains to

London Cannon Street Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is o ...

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