It was half hourly until 2020. Various iterations. Sometimes the fast trains from Victoria would alternate between Dover and Ramsgate. The stoppers would do the same offering cross platform connections in both directions at Faversham. Some years, the fasts would split at Faversham to serve both Dover and Ramsgate, with the stoppers terminating there. In 2020, what is now the xx42 Victoria to Gillingham stopper used to run through to Dover.
Yes I certainly think Canterbury East deserves more services again, including fast ones, but it is true to say right now it's only 1tph each way off peak.
These are not very spectacular when compared with, for example, Sheringham and Cromer, which have usage at 268k and 249k respectively and populations at 7-8k.
Although I wouldn't trust those usage figures due to station grouping with tickets being sold to Farnborough North or Main.
If you multiply up Arnside and grange they are spectacular, their numbers are boosted by it bieng 1 mile by train between the two and approx. twenty by road.
Looking at the origin destination matrix about 27k are between one and the other.
I do wonder whether the "headline" figure for Canterbury East is affected by this. It includes about 150k estimated journeys to and from St Pancras, even though there are no direct trains.
Technically one would only need to change at Faversham to get to St Pancras from Canterbury East, however this would be stupid given the direct and faster service from West, so I do think that station grouping theory is possible. Even without this though, the station still has ~1m passengers, where many of them appear to be from other parts of Kent travelling to the city (Faversham is the top flow, while Sittingbourne, Dover Priory and the Medway Towns all have distinct flows).
I’d say they’re both great examples of rural railways not, as many believe, simply carrying fresh air.
Cromer/Sheringham is the sort of branch that had it closed following Beeching - many would have said it was crazy to reopen as they do on many similar lines that failed to be saved.
I imagine that before HS1 opened that usage of the 2 Canterbury routes and stations was fairly even. I don't remember one station being the "main one" whereas now with HS1, West has become the dominant route to London.
Indeed, consider Hunstanton
Busiest station is St Annes at 148,000, followed by Lytham at 128,000, so fairly well down the list.
