Rochester, Kent the M2 motorway and the High Speed 1 railway line bridge the River Medway. Bus services are operated by Arriva Southern Counties, which took over the locally owned Maidstone & District bus company in the 1990s. Other local bus companies including Nu-Venture provide certain services, some contracted from the local council. Rochester railway station is on the Chatham Main Line and the North Kent Line. Strood railway station is on the North Kent Line and the Medway Valley Line; it links to the HS1 high speed line at Ebbsfleet International giving a running time of 30 minutes into St Pancras.
Maidstone the Hermitage Millennium Amphitheatre. Maidstone is mentioned several times in Ian Fleming's 1955 James Bond novel, "Moonraker". Villain Hugo Drax passes through King Street and Gabriels Hill and later stops at the Thomas Wyatt Hotel. Writer Jack London recounts his visit to Maidstone in his 1903 book "The People of the Abyss". Whilst living in the slums of London in the summer of 1902, he heads to Maidstone in search of hop-picking work up the London Road. He finds lodgings with a "Sea Wife" living in the poor quarter of Maidstone, and persuades her and her husband to let him