was the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway which opened in 1830. This and the London and Greenwich Railway merged into South Eastern Railways (SER) which built the first mainline though Kent with the explicit aim to connect the Kent coast ports with the capital. Hampered by unusual parliamentary restraint the line took the indirect route of sharing the LBSCR's main line until Redhill, Surrey, then travelling along the length of Kent via Tonbridge to reach the ports of Folkestone and Dover via the new "railway" town of Ashford - completed in 1844. SER's networks soon expanded with the North Kent Line along the North Kent coast from London to Dartford, Gravesend and Strood, before following the Medway Valley (as the Medway Valley Line in 1844–56). Branches off this network gave SER access to Thanet from Ashford via Canterbury (1846), Hastings via the Romney Marsh (1852)and Hastings via Tunbridge Wells (1845–52). SER's major London termini were London Bridge, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street. Kent also had a second major railway, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) which competed extensively with the SER, leading to many Kentish towns and cities having two railway stations and several otherwise uneconomic lines being built. LCDR started out as the East Kent Railway in 1858, with the aim of linking the North East Kent coast with the SER's North Kent Line. The LCDR's main line started from the Medway Towns and progressed eastwards via Sittingbourne and Faversham, before dividing to Dover via Canterbury and Thanet via Whitstable and Herne Bay. The SER successfully prevented the LCDR from gaining a connection to its line in Strood, so the LCDR was forced to build its own line to London, opening in 1861. The LCDR achieved this by connecting to the Mid-Kent Railway near Bromley, which connected to the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway which gave it access to the Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway Company and its Victoria Station. It soon built extensions to Sevenoaks (Bat & Ball) (1862), Ashford via Maidstone (1862), and a second London terminus (Blackfriars leading on to Holborn Viaduct - 1864–65). The extensive competition saw the SER build a very expensive deviation via Orpington and Sevenoaks to avoid the lengthy and circuitous route via Redhill, opening in 1868. Thus towns such as Bromley, Gravesend, Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Canterbury, Whitstable, Ramsgate, Margate, Dover and Ashford 'enjoyed' having two stations.