EUROPE RETURNS TO THE UK IN 2025

This year the European Passenger Federation will hold their 22nd annual conference in Swindon at the Steam Museum, which is near to the rail station. This will be the first time they have held their conference in the UK since 2008. The town of Swindon has a rich rail history and is associated with Rail 200 – a range of events across the UK celebrating 200 years of the railways. The conference will take place on Friday 13th June and Saturday 14th June. European Rail campaign (UK) is a member of the European Passenger Federation, which means that members of our campaign are entitled to pay the reduced fee for the conference. See here for further details about the conference:

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS INCREASED CAPACITY AT LONDON ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL

Finally, “Active Thinking” have now published their initial report which suggests capacity at the over-crowded Eurostar Terminal could actually be increased by around 33% during the next 3-4 years. They also say that in the long-term, with a re-design of the terminal, capacity could be further doubled to cater for up to 5,000 passengers per hour. We now have to hope that the terminals at the other end of the line in Europe will also be able to cope with the extra passengers. For further details please see : https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/study-finds-international-passenger-capacity-at-london-st-pancras-could-be-doubled/68004.article AND THEN COULD THERE NOW BE SOME COMPETITION WITH EUROSTAR ? There was a very interesting session of “The House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Rail Group on the 19th November.

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a through service from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam has been introduced, other services have been permanently withdrawn or not re-instated since the outbreak of Covid in early 2020.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

FLIGHTFREE UK INVITES YOU TO A PYJAMA PARTY AT LONDON ST PANCRAS IN SUPPORT OF NIGHT TRAINS

Friday 25th October >>>> 7.30pm (till approx 8.30pm) >>>> St Pancras International station (Eurostar exit) Meet us at 7.30pm at the Eurostar exit inside St Pancras station– Wear pyjamas and bring whatever other nighttime paraphernalia you like e.g. teddy bears.– Bring a fully-charged smartphone and headphones.– Download the Zeno Radio app (or you can access this in your browser) to get the playlist.– Plug in, dance and enjoy!

MORE NIGHT TRAIN CONNECTIONS FROM THE UK VIA BRUSSELS

Since the launch of their 3 times weekly Night train from Brussels to Prague last year, European sleeper have recently opened bookings for a new winter service from Brussels to Venice via Cologne, Innsbruck and Verona. The service will run 2 times a week in February and March 2025 and is aimed at the Ski and Winter Sports market in the German, Austrian and Italian Alps. To find out more please go to https://www.europeansleeper.eu/ AND NOW FOR SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT: – Here is a short video clip at https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6zIkGFr_6RE from a German teenager who has spent more than a year living on German trains. He manages to carry out his work as a software developer and then spends his

ONE TRAIN TICKET ACROSS THE EUROPEAN UNION ?

Although the UK is no longer a member of the European Union, we should also benefit, if this ever becomes a reality. The European Commission President has recently re-stated her commitment to drive this forward during the next 5 years, since her re-election for a 2nd term. Here is a brief critical report of the statement she made on the 2nd of August 2024: – European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen wants Europeans to have easier international train travel. In her new term, it will be possible to travel across several countries with a single train ticket, she promised at her re-election. “Cross-border rail travel is still too difficult for many residents,” Von der Leyen wrote in her political

FOUR PIECES OF GOOD NEWS

(1) ONE STEP TOWARDS MORE ROOM AT ST PANCRAS: HS1, the owners of St Pancras International station have signed a contract with “Active Thinking”(AT) to come up with recommendations for expanding the capacity of the station to cope with both more passengers and post Brexit passport controls. AT have a track record of similar work at airports, stations and the 2012 Olympics. It is expected that they will have a report ready this autumn. Click here for further information: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/hs1-ltd-commissions-study-to-expand-st-pancras-international-station-12-07-2024/ (2) RE-OPENING OF THE GOTTHARD BASE TUNNEL: Swiss Federal Railways have announced that the tunnel will fully re-open on 2nd September following the freight train de-railment that caused severe damage over a year ago. The one-hour reduction in journey times

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

BRUSSELS DECLARATION PUTS UK TRANSPORT POLICY TO SHAME

BRUSSELS DECLARATION PUTS UK TRANSPORT POLICY TO SHAME

On the 4th April 2024 all 27 EU Transport Ministers met in Brussels and issued a 20-point formal declaration outlining the most sustainable Transport Policy for the next European Parliament from 2024 to 2029. They are calling on the parliament to “Make rail transport the backbone of European mobility”. This is in stark contrast to the current UK Government’s complete lack of interest in expanding the capacity of our rail network. We can only hope that after the UK election in July, the new Government will have a more enlightened approach to rail. Even though the UK is not an EU member state, we have listed below 3 of the most important points which we believe could help our campaign:-

GOOD NEWS AT LAST – SPICE comes to LONDON St Pancras International.

In case you wondered, SPICE stands for St Pancras International Capacity Enhancement. This is a project led by HS1(who own the station) to help determine the best way to expand the capacity for international train services serving the station. They plan to do this by producing 3 separate reports in June, July and August this year. This is something that we have been campaigning for in recent years – let’s now hope that the reports actually lead to some concrete action in the not-too-distant future. AND ALSO – IF YOU LIVE IN KENT >>> In case you missed it back in March there was a very informative webinar run by Bring Back Euro Trains at https://bringbackeurotrains.com/, discussing the campaign to