July 2007

Thursday 26th

July Edith Robson (a leading organiser of the campaign to save Ashford International Station) writes;

Today, Mr Richard Brown of Eurostar came to Ashford International station (I assume) to talk to a select few of which I am not one. Only the ’stakeholders’ were invited but not the passengers themselves. The cessation of Ashford-Brussels trains in November would appear to be a fait accompli as far as Eurostar is concerned. The decision, they say, has been a commercial one based (amongst other things) upon the data base of one million plus passengers which tells Eurostar where people live and therefore where they would like to travel from.

Ebbsfleet “horrendous to get to”

They (Eurostar) didn’t feel the need to ask the passengers themselves or consult them in advance. Their adverts for St Pancras station - “Less fuss, more ease” - are all about convenience yet they refuse to believe what people say about Ebbsfleet, that it is horrendous to get to. However, Eurostar will monitor the situation and may revise it in a year, they say. I wonder whether they will ask the passengers in this time. Ebbsfleet has a catchment area of over ten million people, they say, (about 20% of the UK population) therefore that is a better place to stop than Ashford. As far as I can see from looking at the timetable, Ebbsfleet has just been given the Ashford stops.

We were told at the Kent County Council meeting two weeks ago that 8/9 minutes stopping at Ashford (an intermediate stop) would unfairly inconvenience the city to city travellers. Obviously the same is not felt about Ebbsfleet which is also an intermediate stop. I asked Simon Montague today (as I stood outside asking why passengers were not invited) how much it costs to stop a train at Ashford. He said £1.million for a year. When I asked whether they would reconsider if a million pounds were made available, he said they would have to consider it.

Some of Ashford’s 500,000 passengers have said they would be prepared to pay a premium in order to be able to continue to use this station. Even an extra £10 could work out cheaper than extra fuel costs incurred driving to Ebbsfleet not to mention the unacceptable costs in time and increased stress as well as parking there for £11.50 per day.

Brussels to become quicker from York than Ashford

I personally think it would be well worth it to avoid having to take the train to Maidstone East, walk to Maidstone Barracks, train to Strood, another to Dartford, then the fast track bus to Ebbsfleet with a total journey time of five hours instead of two. From November, it will be quicker and easier to travel to Brussels from

Where do we go from here? Eurostar is obviously not listening to us. I think we have a strong case to put to Government based on the following;

- The choice of route was based on regeneration

- The amount of money the taxpayer needs to pay in subsidies and a £4 billion tab to pick up in all likelihood

- Ashford is the Government’s chosen growth area.

- Environmental issues

- The Dartford area is almost at gridlock, why add to it?

Please send your comments in to the website.

Mrs KM from Brussels sent us the following message after a return journey from Ashford on a Friday…

I returned on the Eurostar from Ashford early yesterday evening….I asked one of the women on the information desk at Ashford - (who told me that she is going to have to move house otherwise she would never get to work on time at Ebbsfleet) - how would one get back to Ashford from Ebbsfleet . The answer involved about 5 changes - unless one changed at Lille , depending of course, if ‘they ’synchronised the times….and then there were so few options.

I said that I was very concerned about the possible move to a few people waiting for the Brussels train ( there were at least 50 - 100 people waiting): they (still) did not know about the change.

I could see no large (or small for that matter) notice in Ashford station about the new route avoiding Ashford or the effect it would have on Brussels passengers; only info. about the terminus change & how wonderful this was going to be!!! Maybe I was not looking hard enough………

6th July 2007… 15,300 reasons to be proud of ourselves. Your names, 15,300 of them in total, exercising your democratic right to protest, were taken to Number 10.

We were a group of six regular passengers and campaigners: a Frenchman who moved his business and home to Ashford within six months of Eurostar’s launch there; a Belgian who had done the same; a commuter who travels weekly between Ashford and Brussels. Two rail campaign groups joined us: a representative of the Marsh Link Action Group and a representative of Railfuture. Both have given the Ashford campaign their full support and have collected thousands of signatures. And, of course, I was there too.

Accompanying us were Damian Green, Ashford’s local MP and two of our European Parliament MPs, Sharon Bowles and Peter Skinner. All have worked very hard to help our campaign, collecting numerous signatures and asking questions in the House of Commons and the European Parliament.

Although the Prime Minister, a fellow pupil from Kirkcaldy High School, wasn’t able to come to the door, I too - wearing the school colours of yellow and blue (just like Eurostar) – stood in Downing Steet and told the BBC that I would “strive to my utmost” to get Eurostar to change its mind.

Holding the petition box aloft on the steps of Number 10, we made the evening news that night and featured on the BBC website, in Kent on Sunday and the Kent Messenger.

We are playing our part in the democratic process and the will of 15,300 people should be difficult to ignore. If there is any doubt about how important our protest is, as I write this article on 12th July, our petition is bigger than every single online transport petition open for signatures on the Prime Minister’s website. As for rail petitions, the next biggest rail petition - for another worthy cause put forward by the excellent Roger Ford of Modern Railways Magazine - has only 3,650 signatures.

However, while Eurostar are not ready for a change of heart, our fight will go on. Too many passengers at Ashford are still unaware of what is happening. When I speak to travellers in France and Belgium, I come away with the feeling they are completely in the dark. We must roll up our sleeves and step up the campaign. Keep sending us your comments and observations; keep writing to Eurostar; keep telling friends, colleagues and fellow passengers about what is happening. Ashford can have a great future but it needs your support.