busman
Junior Member
Posts: 61
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Post by busman on May 18, 2011 6:37:06 GMT
Hi All
This was placed on another website not sure if there is any truth in it. has any one else heard the rumors?
"It is understood that the contracts for the Eurostar staff at Ebbsfleet are not going to be renewed, which in itself suggests that Eurostar plan to stop serving Ebbsfleet.
Instead, they intend to resume serving Ashford to a greater extent.
The impetus for this change is the competition introduced by the ‘threat’ of Deutsche Bahn running from Frankfurt to St. Pancras, with most if not all of their services proposed to serve Ashford."
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Post by genehuntisking on May 18, 2011 10:18:50 GMT
While I have not heard this rumour before, it would certainly be an outbreak of common sense.
The fact that Eurostar ever chose Ebbsfleet over Ashford was completely flawed from the start. The arguments put forward (just off the motorway network) never worked for Ashford, so why would they for Ebbsfleet? Ashford has the bonus it is rail connected (properly). Eurostar no longer send me any advertising spam after I replied to the question of "Which of our new stations at St Pancras or Ebbsfleet is best" with the answer "I'd like to say Ashford is better than both, but you have chosen to bypass it". I told Eurostar that Ebbsfleet was pointless even before it opened.
The sooner DB get running and shake Eurostar out of their complacency the better.
I don't understand why Eurostar and to a lesser extent South Eastern allowed themselves to get drawn into the whole Ebbsfleet fiasco. I can't help thinking rather than building a statue of a Kentish Horse, they should make one of an Elephant and paint it white.
The proposed development round Ebbsfleet has not materialised, and as a result we have all been sucked into paying for a station on the High Speed line quite blatantly in the wrong place. A station East of North Downs Tunnel would be better placed to serve Maidstone and Medway (as was in the original proposals before Blue Circle found they had a site to sell at Northfleet).
While we are at it, if Eurostar do intend to down grade the status of Ebbsfleet, why don't South Eastern do the same, and use the units that do the Ebbsfleet bounce back shuttles to do something useful, such as extend the existing Dover service through to Ramsgate, benefiting the people of Sandwich and Deal all day instead of the token effort being proposed. I would go as far as to suggest that the Ebbsfleet peak traffic could be taken up by stopping the Broadstairs trains (which resume 12 car running from Monday) at Ebbsfleet. While these trains will gain an additional 6 coaches, the passengers displaced will only be from below Rochester, as Strood and above will still be picked up by the new Maidstone West service. See above for how Maidstone should have a proper High Speed service!
So there is the blue print on how I would run Kents railways. Wait for a few years and someone will have this good idea too.
The Gene Genie. Others will catch up eventually....
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Post by jumpedup on May 18, 2011 11:04:52 GMT
I would go as far as to suggest that the Ebbsfleet peak traffic could be taken up by stopping the Broadstairs trains (which resume 12 car running from Monday) at Ebbsfleet. While these trains will gain an additional 6 coaches, the passengers displaced will only be from below Rochester, as Strood and above will still be picked up by the new Maidstone West service The peak Broadstairs via Chatham trains already do stop at Ebbsfleet. It is the peak Rochester to St Pancras (two of which currently extend to Faversham in the evening) which will become the Maidstone West to St Pancras service that do not stop, along with most peak services via Ashford. |
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Post by sibodkent on Jun 2, 2011 13:09:36 GMT
Much of the development work around Ebbsfleet has slowed due to the recession, however, Springhead Park is still being built. Dartford is to receive a £300 million 'upgrade', not including the old Wellcome site. Gravesend has a £120 million rejuvenation on hold as the town Nimby's have put a spanner in the works for that. The Swanscombe Peninsula works had to wait for the Blue Circle cement works to be wound down - that's still all underway. In other words, the works around Ebbsfleet are underway - and just progressing slowly. That does pose the old Chicken and Egg conundrum regarding Ebbsfleet itself. The station is well used, but not to capacity. There are always around 2/3rds of the car parks full during the summer, and around 1/2 during the winter. The High Speed services are being used well from this station during peak time based on my own observations. I would be *VERY* surprised if Ebbsfleet sees an abandonment of eurostar services. It's the very reason the station exists. I suspect that with DB and SET also serving the station, it's likely HS1 staff will manage the ticketing instead. I'm sure Ashford have been lobbying very vigerously to get Eurostar to return to their town, so I would not be surprised. Personally Ebbsfleet is more convenient for me than either Ashford or St Pancras. Judging by the number of cars parked at Ebbsfleet, the same is also true for a large enough number of people. So I doubt itll be dropped by anyone altogether. Hi All This was placed on another website not sure if there is any truth in it. has any one else heard the rumors? "It is understood that the contracts for the Eurostar staff at Ebbsfleet are not going to be renewed, which in itself suggests that Eurostar plan to stop serving Ebbsfleet. Instead, they intend to resume serving Ashford to a greater extent. The impetus for this change is the competition introduced by the ‘threat’ of Deutsche Bahn running from Frankfurt to St. Pancras, with most if not all of their services proposed to serve Ashford." |
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Post by stumpyuk on Aug 27, 2011 17:16:22 GMT
If only the HS1 Domestic stopped serving Ebbsfleet - total waste of time (literally) on the Dover/Canterbury services..
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