Discussion about re-opening Kent stations on HS1 between London and the Channel Tunnel is getting more interesting. The Bring Back Euro Trains campaign has been gathering public support to re-open the stations, Ashford’s MP says re-opening the station in his constituency is his highest priority and is building political support, and a report by the Good Growth Foundation has provided some background for re-opening of Ashford as well.
Yet in the margins of an event I attended at Ashford station on 8th January to mark 30 years of the first international train departing from there, there was a tension that dared not be spoken about on the stage: tension between Ebbsfleet and Ashford.
Between the 1990s and 2007 when the second section of High Speed 1 opened, there was no debate – Ashford was the Kent Eurostar station.
But from then on, when the section of the line with Ebbsfleet on it opened, there was a tension. Should trains stop at Ebbsfleet, at Ashford, at both, or at neither? The solution – up until the COVID pandemic when both were shuttered – was to stop a handful of trains at each, but that led to a degradation for Ashford and not enough of a service for Ebbsfleet either. With just over 50 route-km between the two, slowing down and stopping a high speed train to serve both, rather than one or the other, was understandably not really a solution.
Today when Eurostar makes an argument against re-opening Kent stations they say that passenger numbers were poor pre-COVID. Of course they were poor – because the service was poor! This is what the Germans would call kaputtrechnen – make a service so un-useable you then have a case for closing it entirely.
But if we look forward from here it is obvious that serving one station well is better than serving two stations badly. And I have come to the conclusion the station to be served should be Ashford.
It’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges, but the argument goes like this. Ashford’s international terminal – with capacity for 800 passengers versus just 250 at Ebbsfleet – is considerably larger, and is the best channel tunnel terminal of the lot. Airy, well designed, a pleasure to use – a stark contrast to the dark bunkers and inefficient old buildings elsewhere. The track layout – allowing trains to reverse more easily than at Ebbsfleet – is good for the resilience of channel tunnel through services in the case of disruptions. The national train services from Ashford to the rest of Kent (especially Canterbury) are superior than those at Ebbsfleet, and Ashford even works for rail connections into Sussex as far as Brighton. Ashford is also a sizeable town in its own right that benefitted from the international station, and has suffered since the closure of services. There is no real town at Ebbsfleet, although housing is slowly being added at Ebbsfleet Valley.
The argument for Ebbsfleet focuses more on its road connections – east of the Dartford Crossing and west of the future Lower Thames Crossing, it is handy for those driving from Essex, and the parking capacity at the station is 6000 spaces versus 1800 at Ashford, as well as obviously being useful for north Kent as well – and that works by rail too.
However I think you also need to look at the mitigations you could put in place for the other place, and mitigating the downsides of Ashford for those who would favour Ebbsfleet is much easier than the other way around. The key, I think, is to look at the Southeastern Highspeed Javelin services that run on HS1 and serve both Ebbsfleet and Ashford. Bundling a reduced price or even free Ebbsfleet-Ashford Javelin ticket together with an Ashford-Bruxelles or Ashford-Paris ticket, with guaranteed passenger rights, would be an obvious option – and particularly once Southeastern is rolled into Great British Railways in 2027. Those driving from Essex could choose a shorter drive to Ebbsfleet, then a change of train, or a longer drive to Ashford and park there. There is a small additional travel time for those doing this.
The other way around is much more undesirable – were Ebbsfleet the chosen station, those going from Ashford or Canterbury go the wrong way first: westwards towards London, then back eastwards again through Ashford without stopping en route to the tunnel, with consequently longer trip times.
So as I see it, the case for Ashford is stronger than the case for Ebbsfleet, and opening both of them doubles the cost and increases the danger that neither of the stations is viable.
So let’s start with Ashford, get that to work, and once that has been proven work out whether Ebbsfleet is viable too.
Image rights
A Eurostar train at Ashford International – 9O39 1513 Paris Nord to St Pancras International
Joshua Brown
3 September 2014
CC BY-SA 2.0
who actually pays to run Ashford etc? Eurostar or the government
It used to be Eurostar. But it will not be them in the future. One of the crucial questions – so far only partially answered – is how to divide up the costs, and government paying at least some is one of the options considered.
Hi Jon, you may recall that I’m the Ebbsfleet “IMBY”, so I’d like to at least put the case for my ‘local’ HS1 station.
The catchment area for Ebbsfleet you describe misses the most populous part; the part of SE London served by the three suburban lines which fan out from London Bridge to converge again at Dartford. This line then continues towards the Medway towns. In a flagrant crime against integrated public transport, the line meanders over HS1 within sight of the lounge at Ebbsfleet, but no interchange facility was ever built in. But never fear, everyone was able to pile into their cars and hit the A2/A102 or A20 motorways and be at the terminal in 15-30 minutes from their homes. My sister used to drop me off there. After it closed, using Eurostar from her place in Eltham via St. P adds a full 2 hours to the journey. Virtual non-starter for all but the most determined train travellers. Two local MPs have belatedly revived the idea of the original plan to extend CrossRail to Ebbsfleet, although of course that would take years. (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6243l65ze4o)
You make a compelling case here (and your idea for integrating the SouthEastern Javelins from Ebbsfleet is excellent, and needs to be promoted as a fall-back if it has to be either-or) but losing Ebbsfleet forever would be a typical British public transport failure. A year after it opened I announced to my family that when I was over for Christmas I would be taking them for lunch in a nice French brasserie. In Lille. And I did. It worked brilliantly, we had lunch and time to wander round the Christmas market in Lille before returning to Ebbsfleet. I thought we would only develop from there, and dreamed of getting back to Prague from Ebbsfleet with one change in Frankfurt. Instead we have gone backwards in so many ways.
I think there is a case in an ideal world for both Ashford and Ebbsfleet. But the case for Ashford, initially, is stronger. Let’s make that work WELL, and then we can make the case for Ebbsfleet.
Hi Jon, what are your thoughts on Stratford’s viability as perhaps an option for lower cost Eurostar competitors to operate from, both reducing capacity challenges into St Pancras and potentially enabling cheaper fares to the continent?
When Gemini proposed that idea of terminating at Stratford I thought it was interesting and radical, but the more I have looked at it, the less convinced I am. First, the international platforms there are narrow and not very pleasant, and turning it into something workable needs quite some rebuilding. Second, the track layout means reversing trains there is complicated – you need to run almost to St Pancras before you can reverse. And third – perhaps most importantly – work to increase throughput at St Pancras is proceeding, meaning if any of the main terminals now gives me worries it is Paris Nord more than St Pancras. So at the moment I consider it a nice idea, but not central to the future of long distance services through the Channel Tunnel – from Eurostar or anyone else for that matter.