Rye’s rail campaign group is welcoming the ending of Eurostar’s monopoly but says it may be many years before international trains return to Ashford.
Last Thursday 30 October, the rail regulator – the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) – approved an application from Virgin Trains Europe (VTE) to use the Temple Mills International Depot in East London. The depot is the only one in the UK which can take the longer trains used in Europe and the Channel Tunnel.
Virgin Trains hopes to have a service running from London St Pancras by 2030.
The Marshlink Action Group (MLAG), which campaigns on behalf of local rail users, has supported the decision to open up the high speed rail line to competition for the first time in almost thirty years.
Stuart Harland, MLAG’s press officer and former chairman, said, “MLAG made its representations to ORR in favour of extending the rail operating companies having access to the Temple Mills depot beyond Eurostar. A major factor emphasized by MLAG was to promote the restarting of international services from Ashford.”
Trains to and from Europe last stopped at Ashford in 2020. Eurostar currently has no plans to resume services and is instead concentrating on trains linking London direct with other European cities.
The ORR decision is a step in the right direction said Stuart Harland, but a lot more work is needed. “The ORR’s decision, at this stage, does not commit VTE to restarting services from Ashford (or, indeed, any other station). The 2030 timescale is understandable in view of the work required to get a new rail service operating (not least the construction of the fleet of trains), and to re-establish the facilities required at Ashford to enable international services to operate from there again.”
Image Credits: Joshua Brown https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshtechfission/14961954169/ CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.
It is good that Eurostar Trains is going to Expand to Germany and Switzerland in a few years time. But i Think they Should plan to Expand it all the way to Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Ireland, Cyprus, Greece and the Czech Republic. And maybe they could plan to bring in some more Underwater Tunnels for it in the future as well.
Yes I would love a London to Milan direct train
I am 80 and go by train every year and so would many others I know , the demand is there
Ashford should become the new terminal to incorporate a new pet travel service, so that pets can be authorised to board the Eurostar line to Paris. This kills two birds with one stone, it opens the Ashfordrail link- and it also creates momentum for a whole new market of travellers, those who want to take their Pet to Paris and onwards. Please see my campaign to demand an end to the cross channel Pet Ban. https://www.change.org/PetsAcrossTheChannel