Boat train leaving the Martello Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel entrance & sidings
Folkestone of course has had all forms of public transport - except possibly for an underground railway, but not all of them will be shown on this page, because some, like the cross-channel ferries and the cliff lifts have pages of their own.

As the years go by, others, like the Channel Tunnel above will probably warrant a page of its own, but as I don't have that many photos of it yet, I will include it here for now.

Trains have always featured strongly in Folkestone.  When I lived there, we had the Junction Station, the Central Station, Shorncliffe Station and the boat trains which ran right into the harbour.  In days gone by, we also had the Warren Halt.  Nowadays, it is Folkestone East, West and Central (I think), and the station at the harbour has gone the way of the dinosaur.

Also, when I lived there, the buses were mostly double decker, with single deckers, or one man buses as we called them,  just coming in.  They were called one man buses because they didn't require a conductor.
Above is the boat train again, this time it is leaving the harbour.
This time we are in Sandgate, the year is 1918, and the wonderful vehicle is the No. 2 bus from Folkestone.
This was the superb form of public transportation which ran for five miles along the seafront between Sandgate and Hythe.  It was known affectionately as The Toast Rack because of its design.  It must have been lovely to trot along there on a summer day with a beautiful unobstructed view of the sea to your left all the way along to Seabrook.
Here we have an 1850 drawing of Folkestone showing the viaduct, which almost looks out of place in such a rural setting doesn't it?  However, it brought Folkestone forward in leaps and bounds to have train transportation from the harbour.
Jumping up to 1932, this is a photo of the Central Station.
I don't know why the photo on the left is in black & white, because it is of the Chunnel offices.  On the right is the Chunnel terminal at night.
Back to steam trains.  Here we have a double header at Cheriton.
This one was entitled 'Eastern Portal, Shakespeare Cliff Tunnel'
Here we have an East Kent bus, which was on the Folkestone, Hythe and Ashford route.
This 1914 photo shows another bus, this time the company was called the Folkestone District Road Car Company, and alongside it, you can see the driver and conductor.
This is also a Folkestone boat train, taken at Orpington in the 60's
This is entitled Folkestone Car Train. S.E. & C.R.  Now, what would that be?  I would guess South Eastern & Central Railway.  How close am I? :-)
Alan tells me I was close, but no cigar!  It stands for the South Eastern & Chatham Railway.
A couple of modern photos taken by Cliff Sherwood of the Virtual Tourist site, (address on my links page).  On the left is the Central Station, and on the right is a sign for Folkestone West.
Here we have an old picture of Foord Viaduct. Is that water running underneath it?

It would make sense if it was.  After all, I expect Foord Road was named after a foord at one time wasn't it?  Can anybody enlighten me on this please?
This is the entrance of Le Shuttle.  Does anybody know its official name?  So far, on this page alone, it has been called The Channel Tunnel, The Chunnel and Le Shuttle.  Which is it?

Or is it only Le Shuttle on the French side?  Maybe this is a photo of that.

Alan tells me that this is indeed a photo of the French side of the tunnel.
Another form of public transportation is the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway.  Little trains that run all over the Romney Marshes from Hythe to Dungeness.  They are great fun to travel on, and I enjoyed my last trip two years ago as much as I did when I was a child.

This picture shows one of the trains at Dymchurch in 1957.
Another photo of the little railway, as we always called it.  This one is at Dungeness with the lighthouse behind.

On the front of the engine it reads 'Hythe Chamber of Commerce'.  Were they sponsoring the running of it possibly?
I asked you for a picture of an East Kent bus, and I sure got them!
This is a model of the Chunnel terminal
We are sliding right back to 1907 now, and it shows the railway tunnel coming out of Shakespeare Cliff.  Is that part of the cliff still intact, or has some of it eroded?
This station was Shorncliffe in the year 1921.  It is now known as Folkestone West.
A closeup view of one of the little trains at Hythe.  I can't make out the name of the engine, but I am sure one of you will recognise it.
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This fabulous photo of the signal box at Folkestone Central station was sent to me by Jean Adams.  The man you can see inside is her father, Paddy Kelly who was the signalman there in the early 60's when this photo was taken.

Jean said that as children they would often meet him at work, and were thrilled when he allowed them to pull the levers to let the trains pass.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Jean!
This one could have been put into the Streets page, as it shows a lot of Cheriton Road, or the Parks & Gardens, as you can see Radnor Park in the background, but as it has both a train and a bus in the picture, I decided it should go into the Public Transport section.

The train is of course just leaving the Central Station, and the bus looks as if it is heading into Folkestone.  I don't know the year, but would guess late 20's or early 30's, but probably someone who knows their vehicles better than I do would have a better handle on it.
And here is the real thing, taken from the inside.
However, here is a modern double decker.  I took this photo at the bus station in 2005
, we have the Man Of Kent pulled into the Central Station.
This was entitled the Drawing Room car on the Folkestone Express, also the South Eastern & Chatham Railway.  Who knew it was so opulent inside!  Now *that* is the way to travel!
This is how the Junction Station looked in 1927.  Now Folkestone East.
Now look at this!  It was sent to me by Nick Tozer, and it looks like exactly the same picture, except this time the train is called Coronation Limited.  Methinks someone has done a little doctoring somewhere here!
Alan tells me that this cliff is indeed still intact.  Which is quite something considering the amount of erosion that has taken place all along the East Cliff.
Alan sent me this one which is picking up people at the bus station in Bouverie Square to take them to Shorncliffe Camp and Cheriton.  I don't have a year for it, but would guess 50's or 60's.
This one was sent to me by Robbie Paramour, I see it has copyright Martin Fagg, I do hope he doesn't mind me reproducing it here, drop me a line if you do Martin, and I will remove it.
I am sorry, but I didn't make note of who sent me the picture on the right, or the one of the single decker above it, but if you drop me a line, I will add your name to it.
However, I know who is responsible for this one, because I took it myself in 2005.  It is of course the bus station showing the offices.
If you have your own memories of Folkestone, be sure to share them with us by jotting them down in the book below.
The two on the right were also sent to me by Robbie Paramour.  They are not Folkestone, but Silver City airways in Lydd.  It looks as if Ford was using them to promote their new cars, and Silver City were using Ford to show how easy it was to take your car abroad.
Left and right are photos of the Bus Station in 2006 in contrast to the one above left which was taken in 1957.
This page updated Nov10/06
Now, we are going to go back to the Channel Tunnel question and clear it up once and for all.  I had an e-mail from Ian of Folkestone, an employee of Eurotunnel, which is the name of the company that runs and operates the infrastructure, and is the name used in marketing right across Europe.  He said this:  "I can confirm that it is called The Channel Tunnel.  The name le Shuttle was a brand name believed to make the operation sound more European however was dropped some 5 years ago as it has slant towards the French, and being a bi national company this didn't seem so PC."  So there you have it, another question answered! 

Thanks Ian - and thank you so much for sending the above photograph of the inside of the tunnel.  Is that a train coming towards us?  Actually, if I have my facts right, I believe there are three tunnels, one for each direction and a service tunnel in the centre, so there is absolutely no chance of meeting a train head on.  I do think it's a shame that you can't see outside the tunnel while you are going through, wouldn't it be interesting to see the jelly fish floating alongside?
This pic is pretty small, but Ian just sent it to me to say 'yes' I was right in saying there are three tunnels.  Here is how he explains it:

"The smaller tunnel (service tunnel) acts not only as a means of escape in an emergency but also as a ventilation system forcing air into both the train tunnels,as the air pressure in the service tunnel is higher level, in the event of fire it would force smoke away.

Each of the train tunnels have two crossover points so it is possible to travel in one tunnel cross over under sea to the other tunnel and nearer the coast back to the original tunnel making it possible to do maintenance work withought stopping the train service".