Canterbury West Enhancement Development

Canterbury West, one of the busiest stations in Kent (England), is used by the Southeastern’s local and high speed train services.

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. There was also a connection to the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, the first railway in Kent, and later to the Elham Valley Railway; these have both since closed.

The task for trenolab was to simulate the Kent timetable of December 2022 on the Ashford International-Margate line (via Canterbury West) on the current infrastructure and on a proposed future infrastructure with a signalling upgrade in the section between Minster and Sturry. Stochastic simulations were used to evaluate the improvement of key punctuality indicators using the proposed future infrastructure.