30 YEARS OF EUROSTAR – AN ANNIVERSARY TO CELEBRATE ?

Eurostar is 30 years today, since regular train services started to run through the channel tunnel. It was not until 2007 that the full benefits of High-speed rail were realised when HS1 was completed when the London Terminal was moved from Waterloo to St Pancras. Although, in recent years, a through service from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam has been introduced, other services have been permanently withdrawn or not re-instated since the outbreak of Covid in early 2020. There are no longer any through services from the UK to EuroDisney, the South of France or the Ski resorts in the French Alps. Since Covid, trains no longer serve the intermediate stations of Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Calais Frethun. WHERE ARE WE

NOW IS THE TIME FOR EUROSTAR TO RETURN TO KENT

It is now about 4 years, since Eurostar stopped serving Ashford and Ebbsfleet. After a few difficult years due to Covid, Eurostar have recently announced “healthy profits”, increasing passenger numbers and an order for new trains. 2024 could be the ideal opportunity to re-launch these services to co-incide with the 30th anniversary of rail services through the Channel Tunnel. Yet, Eurostar still have no plans to re-instate these services either in 2024 or 2025. People in Kent will still have to travel back to and from London and pay the extra fare to Southeastern trains. As Eurostar can issue cheap add-on tickets to/from any station in Belgium, surely, they could do the same to/from any station in Kent? See here

EVOLYN came in OCTOBER, then HEURO arrived in NOVEMBER, will it be VIRGIN in DECEMBER?

Despite the many obstacles put in the way of train companies running high-speed trains between the UK and Europe, recently 2 consortiums have made public announcements of their plans to compete with Eurostar. While others have come and gone over the years, maybe this time we will eventually enjoy some real competition with a more frequent and cheaper service. Competition in recent years seems to have brought significant benefits to passengers using the high-speed lines in Spain and Italy. It remains to be seen whether any of these plans will see the light of day. On the 11th of October, EVOLYN (a Spanish-led consortium of various investors) announced plans to order 12 trains for a service through the channel tunnel

BELGIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER SHOWS US THE WAY FORWARD

Earlier this month Georges Gilkenet the Belgian Transport Minister gave a very positive interview at the RailTech 2023 conference held in Brussels. He outlined the long-term commitment his Government has made to develop the rail network over the next 10 years. During the interview he made clear the importance of rail in helping the Belgian Government meet their targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also confirmed his commitment to develop Brussels as a night train hub by announcing that night trains will pay no track access charges or energy costs in Belgium for the next 2 years. You can find out more here at: https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/06/09/belgian-minister-gilkinet-talks-rail-challenges-night-trains-and-more/, where he gave a 12-minute interview in English. This is in marked contrast to

EUROSTAR – A GLIMMER OF LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL ?

Last October, we posted an item highlighting how Eurostar has been effectively strangled since the start in 1994 from reaching it’s full potential. We then sent letters to various media outlets based on this item – in case you missed it see the monthly news item on 12th October 2022 at https://www.eurorailcampaignuk.org/monthly-news/ . Although it was not picked up by the National Media it was published in full in the December issues of Modern Railways, Todays Railways-Europe and Railwatch. Later on, in early February another fortnightly publication called Rail covered the topic in 3 separate articles in the same edition, including one by Christian Woolmar in his regular column. These articles all explained how and why Eurostar could not charge

KENT ALMOST ISOLATED FROM EUROPE – AGAIN!!

It will soon be 3 years before Kent lost its’ direct Eurostar services from Ashford and Ebbsfleet with no sign of them returning anytime soon. Since then, Kent residents have had to double back to London St Pancras and pay extra just to take a train across the channel to Europe. We are now asking Eurostar to offer free or reduced fares on the connecting HS1 services from Ashford International & Ebbsfleet to St Pancras run by South Eastern Trains. In the meantime, the choice of cross channel ferry services from Dover to Calais for foot passengers is substantially reduced. DFDS no longer take foot passengers on any of their services and P & O have limited foot passengers to

THROUGH TICKETING ACROSS EUROPE?

Before the Channel Tunnel opened in 1995, you could always buy a paper train ticket from most UK stations to most destinations all over Europe. Since the start of Eurostar services from London, it has become harder to buy a through ticket to many destinations beyond France, Belgium & The Netherlands. An easy connection at Brussels onto Germany is complicated by the fact that a Deutsche Bahn ticket for Germany is not valid on a Thalys (now part of Eurostar) service to Cologne. Thanks to rail campaigners all over Europe there is finally some hope on the horizon. Back in October, a formal agreement was announced by all main train operators across Europe that they will adapt their ticketing systems

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” – HAS EUROSTAR BEEN STRANGLED ?

As we face a Climate Emergency, why is it still so hard and expensive to use Eurostar-the greenest way to travel to and from Europe? Eurostar has been continually ” strangled” ever since its birth when the first train ran through the Channel Tunnel in November 1994. The responsibility for all this clearly lies with the UK Government. This is mainly due to their ideological obsession of privatising all major infrastructure projects. How has this happened ? 1 – The track access charges per kilometer that Eurostar has to pay to the owners of the Channel Tunnel have always been set much higher than the average across Europe. 2 – The need for all passengers to go through airport style

EUROSTAR MUST RETURN TO ASHFORD IN 2022

Kent must no longer be cut off from the High Speed European Rail Network. As Eurostar is now running a very busy full service from London St Pancras, it is now high time they re-opened Ashford International, which has regular interval local train connections to most parts of Kent. Opening up Ashford will help to relieve the pressure on the terminal at St Pancras, which has been struggling to deal with the large number of passengers having to go through the extra Post-Brexit border controls.

TO SPAIN BY TRAIN ?

Thanks to investment in the High-Speed Network, for several years it has been possible to take daytime trains from London to many parts of Northern and Eastern Spain. This is not quite so easy for those living further away from London or not wanting a long daytime journey with one or more changes along the way. However, there are many places along the way which could make a very pleasant stop-over to break up the journey. Have a look at this link for some interesting ideas :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGR3ipqyjes&list=PL8w-BAm7lVzfnTCJauwicMo0-eeYPkE0h