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. The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by Southeastern. Location. The station is down the line from (measured via Herne Hill) and is situated between and . All serving trains are operated by Southeastern. The station is approximately to the south 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. 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 . The framework of the platform canopies were originally installed at the never-opened station at . 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. 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. A footbridge and lifts were opened  in 2021. Services. All services at Canterbury East are operated by Southeastern using EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: During the peak hours, the service is increased to 2 tph. 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