In her column for Rye News this month Hastings and Rye MP Helena Dollimore calls for the return of International services at Ashford, as a new report says it would bring a £2.7billion boost to the local economy.
Earlier this week I walked into the closed international terminal at Ashford. Shut since 2020, when Eurostar pulled its services from Ashford, the terminal is now a ghost terminal with rows of chairs covered in plastic sheets and abandoned check-in desks. Being there brought back my childhood memories of boarding the Eurostar at Ashford International. I loved going on what I then called the “yellow-nosed train” and having a whole continent on the doorstep of East Sussex.
But the closure of the international terminal at Ashford has made this once-seamless journey a thing of the past. For those of us in Hastings, Rye and the villages, the Eurostar now takes much longer and costs more, since we have to travel up to St Pancras only to come back down the same way. It is depressing to pass through the deserted Ashford International station before entering the tunnel.
Not only is this unbelievably frustrating, but it is also cutting off our area from opportunity. All of us who live here know that reopening Ashford International would give a huge boost to local jobs, tourism, local businesses and relations with our European neighbours. So many local businesses tell me how much they have felt the loss of the Ashford link. Now, a new report by a leading think thank, the Good Growth Foundation, has finally put some numbers on it.
As I write in the report foreword, the report finds it would bring more than 500,000 extra visitors per year, £2.7 billion extra into the local economy over 5 years, and hours cut from a trip between Rye and Paris. Even longer if you are coming from Hastings and St Leonards.
That is why getting Ashford’s international terminal back open has never just been about trains. Reopening the mothballed station is a great way of giving towns and coastal communities like ours on the South Coast a much needed boost. The Sutton Trust recently found that our area is in the bottom ten places nationally for social mobility, and bringing back the Ashford link would help open up opportunities for young people.
I have been campaigning for the resumption of international services from Ashford for years, and now as our Member of Parliament I have been taking that campaign to the highest levels of government. The Labour government has pledged its support to the reopening of Ashford International, and if Eurostar won’t step up and resume the service, we should enable another train operator to take it over. Eurostar’s monopoly on running cross-channel trains is soon coming to an end, and other train operators are making bids to run trains on the line. I am calling on the train operators to grasp the opportunity of stopping at Ashford, and on the rail regulator to recognise its importance when assessing train operator bids to run on the line.
This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. We all know how much our area has to offer, we should be making it easy for visitors to come see it for themselves, especially as 1066 Country steps into the spotlight with the approach of the Bayeux Tapestry’s return to Britain next year. Of course, back in 1066 the French were armed with more than just buckets and spades! Today’s arrivals will find a much warmer welcome.
Image Credits: Helena Dollimore .
As I understand it, the only reason that Ashford closed to Eurostar traffic was the French authorities’ refusal to fund French border controls in the station. The same applies to Paris Disneyland and caused the end of the direct connection between it and the UK.
If this is the case, perhaps your boss Kier Starmer could take advantage of his bromance with Mr Macron to push through a change of heart?
Who knows, it might even slow the terminal decline in Labour’s popularity in Kent and Sussex.
I recall well all those years ago when Ashford Int was built. The company I was managing at that time had a major part in the construction of the associated railway signalling. I wondered then as to why on earth would you put an international terminal, with all the associated costs at Ashford? Just couldn’t see it, and still don’t, so I doubt even ‘old 2 Tier’ will not be able to swing this one. On the matter of terminal decline, it is just that – terminal. Sorry Helena
As a regular user of the Eurostar from Bexhill, I support all of these arguments and efforts. It makes complete sense to have a stop outside of the tunnel – Ashford station was efficiently managed – and a pleasant travel experience. St Pancras is overcrowded (the location of the Ebbsfleet station made no sense) and enabling people to travel from Sussex/Kent without the expense and time wasted of going into London, all the while attracting more people to the area, is absolutely essential to bring revenue to these regions. An additional reason why there were fewer trains and then no trains stopping at Ashford – on top of Covid – was an oversight on the company which designed the new Eurostar fleet of trains as they couldn’t stop at the Ashford station – SIEMENS. Only the older ALSTOM trains could stop at the station not the more recent model of train built by (they also have other issues – wifi doesn’t work and air conditioning issues). I think they are going back to ALSTOM should hopefully be able to stop at the station again?