Parliamentary debate on Ashford international services
A parliamentary debate took place at Westminster on “the merits of returning international rail services to Ashford”. The debate, which happened on 14th October at 9.30, was fronted by Helena Dollimore MP (Hastings and Rye) who had requested it.
Cheap political point-scoring aside, it’s well worth a listen. Particularly welcome is Helena’s crystal-clear exposition of the effects on the wider south east of the loss of Ashford’s international train service. MPs from across the south east added their views, and they were answered by a representative on behalf of the Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy.
Listen to it here (audio only).
A previous debate in Parliament on this subject, exactly two years ago this month, was fronted by Ashford’s then MP Damian Green and answered by the then Minister for Transport, Huw Merriman. This happened before the rivals made their bids for competition on the cross-Channel route, although Huw Merriman did refer to competition as a potential answer. Furthermore the EES (now implemented and cited by Eurostar as an obstacle) was still being planned. It was also close to the pandemic which caused Eurostar to incur debts to cover their losses during that period.
Category: General News
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