Trasporti

Railway
Canterbury East signal boxCanterbury has two railway stations, Canterbury West and Canterbury East. Paradoxically, Canterbury West is almost due North of Canterbury East. The services from these are operated by Southeastern. Canterbury West is served primarily from London Charing Cross with limited services from Victoria as well as by trains to Ramsgate and Margate. Services from London Victoria stop at Canterbury East (journey time around 88 minutes) and continue to Dover.Faster services are promised from 2009, with the introduction of Japanese "bullet" trains which will cut 30-45 minutes off the travel time to London.[7] It is expected that this reduction in commuting time will have an impact in property prices in Canterbury.Canterbury West station was the earliest to be built. It was opened by the South Eastern Railway from Ashford on 6 February 1846; on 13 April the line to Ramsgate was completed. Canterbury East is the more central of the two stations, although it came later, being opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on 9 July 1860.Canterbury was also the terminus of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (known locally as the 'Crab and Winkle' line) which was a pioneer line, opened in 1830, and finally closed in 1953. Despite claims by the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Canterbury and Whitstable was the first regular passenger steam railway in the world. It included the first significant railway tunnel in the world, which is located at the Archbishop's School and the first railway bridge in the world. Part of the former route of the line can be walked along near Tyler Hill. Part of one of the buildings of the University collapsed into the closed railway tunnel on 11 July 1974, extensive rebuilding and the filling in of the tunnel was required.[8]RoadCanterbury is now by-passed by the A2 London to Dover Road. It is about 45 miles from the M25 London orbital motorway, and 61 miles from central London. The other main road through Canterbury is the A28 from Ashford to Ramsgate and Margate. Canterbury is legendary for traffic congestion throughout the day, and the City Council has invested heavily in Park-and-Ride systems around the City's outskirts. There are three sites, at Wincheap, New Dover Road and Sturry Road. There are plans to build direct access sliproads to and from the London directions of the A2 where it meets the congested Wincheap (at present there are only slips from the A28 to and from the direction of Dover) to allow more direct access to Canterbury from the A2, but these are currently subject to local discussion.The hourly National Express coach service to and from Victoria Coach Station, which leaves from the main bus station is typically scheduled to take 2 hours.