Time to face up to need for extra station

Iwalked along Roper Road the other day. This was to see if having a footbridge across the track to the station would help to ease congestion at the St Dunstan’s level crossing. The suggestion is that National Rail should build a bridge that would provide a Roper Road car park for rail travellers.

I may be missing something but I can’t see how this would solve the congestion problem one little bit. I can’t see that the size of the land available in Roper Road could provide parking for more than 60 to 70 cars at most.

But what a bridge would do is add to the car parking congestion that there already is in Roper Road, Beaconsfield Road, Beverley Road and beyond.

Travellers would park their cars in an area already swamped with student all-day parking. Congestion also be created at the junction between St Dunstan’s Street and Roper Road. Cars looking for parking in this small but more-likely-than-not full car park would add to the St Dunstan’s queues when the rail barriers were down.

This proposal is in no way a solution. I suspect it is a non-starter since the cost to National Rail would be excessive. Its plans for housing in Roper Road are far more in keeping with the character of the neighbourhood.

Of course there is a need for more parking at Canterbury West. But the plans for a multi-storey need to be handled with care.

We don’t want something thrown up on the cheap. The trees along Station Road West need to be preserved. The new car park needs also to be fronted with street-level retail outlets that improve the quality of the urban fabric.

Over the next 20 years there will be another 15,000 new homes in the wider Canterbury district area. In addition, there will be other major housing developments by neighbouring district councils.

I think we can assume that a high proportion of this huge incoming population will be London commuters. It is madness for these to drive from east Kent villages into Canterbury only to park their cars to catch trains up to London.

Somewhere outside Canterbury there needs to be an additional purpose-built rail station to serve the needs of commuters living in the surrounding areas. It needs to have easy access from the A2. Some years ago, British Rail had a vision to build a brand new station with ample parking south-west of Canterbury. This plan should be resurrected. It would ease congestion into Canterbury and reduce the pressure on Canterbury West. There is a model for this as shown by Didcot Parkway near Oxford. This integrates rail, car and bus transport at a travel hub that London and Oxford commuters use.

Yes, let’s build a multi-storey car park at Canterbury West and abandon the idea of a footbridge from Roper Road. But in addition, local councillors and planners should be lobbying for an additional rail station that will serve the needs of that big increase in daily commuters over the next few years. A long-term solution instead of a short-term fix, and a proper infrastructure development of the kind the government claims it is committed to.