Your Cross-Channel Train Story
If you have been impacted by the loss of cross-Channel train services from Ashford or Ebbsfleet Station, please let us have your story.
Write it in the form in the column on the right (below on mobiles) and click the blue Post Comment button to submit it. If you reach the end of the form just keep typing, the space will expand. The Website box is for businesses, please leave blank if that doesn’t apply to you.
Your story will appear here once it has been approved by our moderators, so do check back.
Ian Ring:
There is not a single transport system in the world that works to perfection all the time. The most critical test of a transport system is not how it operates under normal conditions but how it responds when things go wrong. Here is a Eurostar test case from 27 December 2024.
According to information reported in the press an early morning London to Paris service failed in the Channel Tunnel where it remained for two and a half hours until the train was able to move forward slowly under its own power to Calais Frethun where the passengers remained on board until a replacement train was brought to the other platform and passengers transferred to the replacement train which eventually arrived in Paris six hours late.
During the time the train was stranded the Channel Tunnel operated in single bore mode causing inevitable delays to both Eurostar and Euro Shuttle trains in both directions. I first became aware of this when I arrived at St Pancras at 10.30am and noticed that all arrivals from both Paris and Bruxelles were between twenty and seventy minutes late. I enquired of a member of staff whether this would affect my 13.01 departure and in reply was told about the problem and that after the 11.31 departure all trains should leave on time but may experience a ten to fifteen minute delay on route. Sure enough the 10.31 to Paris left nearly an hour late, the 11.31 to Paris left around twenty minutes late. The 12.31 to Paris and my 13.01 to Bruxelles left on time.
At St Pancras the queues seemed no longer than usual, they were well managed by cheerful staff and flowed well. Security checks of baggage caused the usual short queues but Passport Control was slick, seamless and without queues. It may have been different two hours earlier.
I had a fifteen minute connection at Bruxelles on to the 16.22 ICE to Koln. My Eurostar arrived five minutes late so I had ten minutes and I made the train with five minutes to spare. We departed on time. However there is an issue here that Eurostar, SNCB and Deutsche Bahn must address. There are always passengers from the Eurostar travelling onward to Germany by the ICE but, as a norm, the ICE is not held for a late running Eurostar. I only made the connection because:
– I was travelling alone
– I only had a 35litre backpack, half full and no other luggage
– I was first off the Eurostar from the front coach
– I am able to walk quickly and unaided
– I had checked the departure platform of the ICE a few minutes before our arrival
– I know my way round Bruxelles Midi station
– I can read the station electronic departures board (to check for last minute changes) on the move
Making a connection shouldn’t relay on these factors and there will be people who missed the connection. Holding the ICE for up to ten minutes would probably not seriously impact arrival time at Cologne.
Now back to the original issue, the train that failed in the tunnel. I do not wish to downplay the anxiety, distress and much more suffered by the passengers but my focus is on Eurostar’s response. Whilst I have always found Eurostar terminal and on board staff to be friendly, cheerful, helpful and knowledgeable it does seem that higher management treat passengers as a commodity to be moved rather than people with feelings travelling for a purpose.
Two and a half hours to power down a failed train, carry out safety checks power up the train and carry out further safety checks might be fine in the depot but it is not fine with a train load of passengers in the tunnel. If after a reasonable period of time, say thirty minutes, the train is still a failure the rescue locomotives should be sent in to haul the train forward to Calais or Ashford where passengers can transfer to a replacement train.
On the question of replacement trains instead of waiting for another Eurostar to be sent from London or Paris SE Javelins could be used from Ashford or a SNCF TGV from Lille taken to Calais Frethun. Yes I know its different operators but passengers are more important than train company politics.
I do not know the cause of the failure in this instance but if the train was eventually able to proceed to Calais at a lower speed maybe it could have continued to Lille where a simple cross platform transfer of passengers would have been possible. Crucially, it may have been able to move forward slowly earlier.
At least in this case passengers were taken forward to France, not back to London to begin the journey again. They were also given water and hot drinks at Calais and they will have received partial compensation for the delayed Eurostar leg of their journey. That is not enough they should get re-imbursement for any new travel tickets or hotel accommodation required to be complete their journey resulting from the delay. For a delay of this magnitude a voucher for a free Eurostar trip should be given to each passenger.
Finally, it seems that Eurostar need an ‘incident recovery plan’ that is more passenger focussed, getting them to their destination with as short a delay as possible.
David Newsom:
I live near Paddock Wood and travel with work to Paris or Brussels several times a year. Closing Ebbsfleet and Ashford adds a couple of hours each way to my journey (the outward journey is more impacted). This makes for a really long day, unnecessary expense and far less efficient use of my time.
It also makes it far less likely for me to have holidays in Europe via train.
Richard M:
I live in Bexhill on Sea, and picking up Eurostar at Ashford used to be a very convenient arrangement.
Currently, it just isn’t worth it: Travelling to Ashford, changing onto the Javelin to St Pancras, checking in 90-120 minutes before [it used to 20 when Eurostar first launched] then doubling back in order to reach the continent….
When Ashford was open, we used to be able to have breakfast at home and lunch in Paris…. now it’s an all-day enterprise and we have just given up and reverted to Gatwick..
John Bassendine:
We live in West Kent, so we can join Eurostar at St Pancras, but in the past we travelled from Ashford with friends in East Kent on group Eurostar trips to Europe. Those trips are now done by car – coach hire is too expensive.
Kit Mills:
I live in Canterbury and my partner lives in Paris. So obviously adds unnecessary time to our travel. But my main gripe is why there were stops created in Ashford and Ebbsfleet in the 1st place, anyone remember? The building process was a nightmare for people living in the trainline’s way – and about 50 feet either side. It carved a huge crack in our Kent countryside and many people signed petitions to stop it or spent weeks chained to trees to protest! I remember going to see back to the future at the ashford cinema that was destroyed to make way for the building, the old cattle market was a Saturday morning tradition, fresh fruit, veg and meat not to mention the huge sense of community – gone, flattened for the train line. Many people were forced, yes it was compulsory to move, because their house was in the way. BUT… it was ok they said, because of the huge economical benefit coming to Kent. It WASNT going to be just for London business men, we WERENT going to be just barrelled through on the way to London. Erm…. The payoff for the loss of green rolling fields into a concrete landscape would be worth it to us as a county. Jobs, business, connections, sustainable travel – pfttt gone, now having gone through all those environmental and social changes Kent is just a fly over to London. I wish I’d chained myself to a tree…
Anne:
I live in Canterbury.
The halcyon days off Eurostar stopping at Ashford enabled my family and me to use it as a gateway to Europe. We showed our daughters how to travel internationally, independently and sustainably. We used to catch the early morning Eurostar from Ashford (or latterly, Ebbsfleet) and go as far as we could before nightfall. Aside from the short hops to Paris and Brussels we travelled to Avignon, Montpellier, Ligurian Riviera, Berlin, Köln, Ghent, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Milan, Göttingen and the ultimate for one daughter, Stresa on Lake Maggiore, where we alighted a connecting train from Paris and walked 400m to the lake shore, entering our hotel via a red carpet. And all these journeys allowed us to arrive in time for an evening meal! Wonderful – and if booked well in advance, very good value.
Further afield, we used Ashford Eurostar to get an early start to travel to Rome, Naples, Puglia and even Sicily, yes, on a train. Our experiences were not only great fun for all of us but educational and formative for our, now adult, children.
It is 2024; we are recently retired and had visualised the freedom of being able to nip off on Eurostar at will to explore other parts of Europe. But nowadays, in the Brave New World of accessing Europe via London, our railway wings have been clipped. Our intrepid travels involve, not only the extra expense of travelling to London but also an extra overnight stay in order to catch the early morning start on Eurostar. So, for reasons of economy and time, we have recently holidayed in Bavaria, Provence and the Rhineland, travelling by car. Utter madness!
Bring back Eurostar to Kent. The sooner, the better.
O:
When I first came to Ashford in 2018, the main selling point was it’s connection to France, which I used often before covid. Now that I live here permanently, I have not been able to travel back to see my family in France as much as I’d like: the added cost and travel time preventing me to travel “just for a (long) weekend”… It is cheaper, and surprisingly not much longer to travel all the way to Heathrow from Ashford and fly to France. Indeed we already need to take the train to London so all we need is to add the cost of a tube ticket…Environmentally speaking, this simply should not be an option..
Bob:
My sister lives in Germany and uses the train whenever she comes to visit. It’s an expensive complication to have to disembark in London and come straight back down to Ashford but the South East Trains service is normally quick and efficient. Sadly last December SE trains were on strike, Eurostar would not allow a change of date and Gill had to book a taxi from St Pancras to Ashford, adding £130 and several hours to the journey. Kent needs a Eurostar service!
Phillip:
One of the main selling points why I moved to Ashford was the Eurostar service. I had plans to use it but unfortunately the pandemic kicked in and the one experience I had in 2022 travelling to Brussels was very costly and time consuming – I had to travel to St Pancras to get the train therefore leaving home a lot earlier and an added expense. With so many people in Ashford, other Kent towns and even neighbouring counties being affected I hope to see this service restored as it’s very much needed.
Alex Bienfait:
With Eurostar now not stopping in Ashford, we’ve all but given up taking the train to Paris. The extra expense and wasted time travelling to London from Ashford is significant. We find it now much easier to take the ferry and drive to Paris. Unbelievably it’s not much longer in time, more flexible and much cheaper.
StephanieB:
I am half French and have family in Paris, and I live in Ashford. The inconvenience of not having Eurostars stop at Ashford Station is self-evident: I deplore the extra time and expense of making the detour via London St Pancras. I look forward to this situation being rectified very soon.