On 1st December, I returned from Brussels on the 6.59 changing at Lille - a mere three hour wait for your connection - a Paris train which stops at Ashford. Lille is one of the coldest stations I know with no heating in the waiting room only heated pillars on the concourse. It reminded me of St Pancras last December. I set off for a nearby hotel to have breakfast but that’s going to be rather expensive at €18 each time.
On the 4th, I had to drive to Ebbsfleet to give a package to a passenger who could pass it on to my husband in Paris. It was a day of torrential rain. The drive, which took an hour from Ashford, was terrifying; three lanes at 70mph all the way with especially poor visibility if you were anywhere near a lorry. I have always said that I could not face doing two return journeys like this each week.
The walk from open car park to station left me soaking, although I was not encumbered or slowed by a suitcase and therefore much quicker than I would have been normally. During the return to the car against the wind I was utterly drenched but whilst I could remove my dripping coat I had to drive all the way home in sopping trousers.
Is it any wonder people do not want to use Ebbsfleet? I keep meeting people who say ‘Nevermore’. But I am heart sorry for the folk who have no choice but to use it.
In Germany in March, there is a conference entitled ‘Changing the Culture in Public Transport: Moving from Production Industry to Service Provider in a Cost Conscious Business’. The UITP Secretary General says ”Public transport is a people’s business. . . . Effectiveness has to do with responding to customers’ needs and expectations.”
Do you think Eurostar might learn something from it? Or, as I fear, will they just continue
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