From the BBC:

Three Kent councils push to bring Eurostar services back to Kent



Three local authorities are making another appeal for international rail services to be brought back to Kent.

Eurostar services have not stopped at Ashford International and Ebbsfleet international stations since 2020, when passenger numbers fell during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday leaders of Kent County Council and Ashford and Dartford borough councils gathered at Ashford to sign a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to fight for them to be restored.

Eurostar said the situation will be reviewed in 2026.

The three councils will also back proposals to allow operators other than Eurostar to run passenger services through the Channel Tunnel.

Other companies who have expressed an interest in running international services are Virgin, TrenItalia and a partnership between Gemini and Uber, with Kent and Sussex MPs backing the idea earlier in September.

To do so they would need to be allowed access to the Temple Mills International Depot in Leyton, London, the only facility where Channel Tunnel trains can be serviced, and currently run by Eurostar. The Office of Road and Rail is due to take a decision in October on whether to allow other operators to use the depot.

KCC leader Linden Kemkaran said: "Kent's residents and businesses have waited long enough. The infrastructure is here, the demand is real, and the benefits are huge - thousands of jobs, stronger trade, and hundreds of millions for our economy."

Ashford Borough Council leader Noel Ovenden said: "Over 25 years of significant investment has ensured Ashford International remains ready, keeping alive the opportunity to support European travel. Delivering on international services by re-opening this gateway to Europe holds the key to unlocking the benefits of that investment, not just in Ashford, but for the whole of Kent, wider South East region and the UK economy."

Jeremy Kite, leader of Dartford Borough Council added: "We're absolutely convinced that the return of services represents a major commercial opportunity, as demand for international rail travel grows. Ebbsfleet has all the potential to play a key role in the European rail network and stimulate further regeneration in the area."

And Vince Maple, who leads Medway Council, said: "Restoring international services to two already established railway stations in Kent would support a critical sector in our economy as well as thousands of jobs and provide climate-friendly travel for Kent and Medway residents to venture into Europe."

A 75,000-signature petition calling for the return of international services has also been collected.

Rail minister Lord Peter Hendy, who was at the event, said: "It is clear that demand for international rail services has bounced back since the pandemic and is now at record levels, reflecting the growing demand for sustainable connections to Europe. We know there is potential for much more and I want to see major changes over the coming years that mark a new chapter for international travel which we are committed to unlocking. It will take some time to get here, but this Government is doing everything it can to make sure these stations are served."

The bid is also being supported by French politicians and business leaders.

(BBC article continues)

Passengers on several Eurostar trains are facing delays and cancellations after a power supply issue on a rail line in northern France led to its closure.

The Eurostar website shows at least nine services on Monday between London and Paris have been cancelled, while a further 15 services have been delayed.

The problem started at about 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Monday and disruptions are expected to continue until the end of the day, with trains being diverted to run on slower lines.

Eurostar has advised passengers to postpone their journeys if possible.

Some services between Brussels and Paris and between Amsterdam and Paris have also been cancelled, delayed or faced other disruptions due to the rail closure, which happened on the high-speed line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region.

French track network operator SNCF Réseau said on its website that the "severely disrupted" services were due to a power supply issue which required "major repairs".

It predicted delays of between one and five hours on the Eurostar, as well as its other services TGV inOui and Ouigo.

Trains between London-Amsterdam, Brussels-Amsterdam, Brussels-London and Brussels-Cologne have not been impacted.

Eurostar said SNCF Réseau had told it that one track would be reopened at 18:30 CET (17:30 GMT) and that this would "allow trains to run again on the high-speed line but with limited service".

"Traffic should be able to resume on both tracks tomorrow morning when services start running again," it added.

Extra staff have been sent to affected stations to help passengers.

August is a peak period for cross-Channel travel due to school holidays, meaning services are often busier than normal.

Monday's disruptions come nearly a month after a Eurostar train travelling between Brussels and London had to be evacuated in northern France due to a power failure.

And in June, there were two days of major disruptions after separate fatal incidents on France's LGV Nord line, which was followed by cable theft.

Elizabeth Romijn, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands, told PA news agency at St Pancras that the situation was "very chaotic" and people were having to sit on the ground because there were not enough chairs.  The 75-year-old was planning to travel home to Brussels after visiting friends in Surrey. 

Eurostar passengers face severe delays after cable theft



Eurostar passengers are facing a second day of severe delays after two people died on the railway track in France and then cables were stolen.

The high-speed rail operators says repairs are complete and the railway line is open again, but delays will last until the end of the day.

Eurostar said passengers should postpone their journey, after the disruption saw services cancelled and delayed in both directions on lines connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Eurostar said there was already knock-on disruption on Wednesday after two people died in separate incidents on the LGV Nord line on Tuesday, but services were further impacted after cable was stolen on the same line.



The theft near Lille, which French media said was of around 600 metres of copper cables, caused trains to be rerouted, leading to extended journey times. Further cancellations are not expected on Wednesday now that the railway line is repaired.

Eurostar said that so far, five trains between London and Paris have been cancelled. It added that impacted passengers can change their travel plans for free or request a full refund.

"We're very sorry for the impact this is having on our customers," Eurostar said in a statement. "Our teams are working closely with the French authorities and infrastructure teams to manage the situation and restore services safely."

The operator earlier said one track had reopened, allowing some trains to run in both directions until full repairs were completed.  Water is being handed out to passengers onboard delayed trains, and stations are also very busy.  Hundreds of people are queuing at London's St Pancras International railway station trying to access the service centre to rebook onto other trains.

Elizabeth Romijn, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands, told PA news agency at St Pancras that the situation was "very chaotic" and people were having to sit on the ground because there were not enough chairs.  The 75-year-old was planning to travel home to Brussels after visiting friends in Surrey.  "My plan is to just wait. Maybe I should go and be more proactive and go to ask one of the staff but nobody seems to know anything," she said, adding that "it's quite horrible long queues."

The railway line in France was closed for much of the afternoon and evening on Tuesday after the two fatalities between Lille and Paris.  Services were cancelled on routes to and from Paris while trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam ran with delays.  Eurostar said disruption continued into Wednesday as trains and crew were displaced.

Just out of idle curiosity on my part: was it a German or a British bomb?  We both bombed Paris, during the course of the Second World War. 

Breaking news on Sky news,due to unexploded WW2 bomb near Gare De Nord

Confirmation it's purely profitability - from the Daily Star - in an article about what the lack of services at Ashford has done to the town

“While we continue to operate in an uncertain and fragile environment, we must focus on our most profitable inter-capital routes to enable us to meet our financial commitments, stabilise our operation and our customer experience, before considering any further developments.

Or maybe because of Brexit  - reduced traffic to Brussels leaves more space on those trains for the intermediate stop (and the Amsterdam extensions at times) and Paris is by far the broader flow / don't need to waste time stopping the London <-> Paris trains at Lille.

No local Lille <-> Paris traffic, so that's not an issue

Thanks G - Hadn't realised Paris's had the Lille stop removed. Maybe a result of the pandemic

Certainly stops at Lille

inquirey as in the header

Following up on a tangent.

10 days or so ago (23rd November 2022), checked in and in the lounge at Brussels Midi awaiting Eurostar boarding, I glanced at the Information desk that was there providing London information for visitors.  Sparse, but there were London Underground maps to help (one presumes) people plan and follow onward journeys in our capital.

Except

The maps are dated June 2017!

No Nine Elms; no Battersea Power Station.
No Barking Riverside
No Elizabeth line!

I noted (it may have been St Pancras a couple of weeks earlier) a similarly out of date tube map on the wall for people to look at, but somewhat discounted that as being akin to a piece of artwork; in the fabric, and are people interested in reading an underground map as they leave?

Arriving into St Pancras, the waymarking to other public transport services did not look brilliant to put it mildly - having said which, I shot through as I had a close (or supposed to be close) connection at Paddington onto a last connection of the day

I WOULD thank Eurostar for honouring my booking when I arrived 2.5 hours late in Brussels due to a DB cancellation (the 2 hourly Frankfurt to Brussels express), but the general flavour of the organisation is one where maximising revenue and minimising the cost of handing them is prioritised over actually providing a good experience.

There are two flavours of Farringdon Station: Farringdon, code ZFD (which is the Thameslink one), and Farringdon (Elizabeth Line), code FDX. The GWR planner works with the first and refuses the second. NRE's planner won't even let you enter FDX.

Not very clever, these journey planners, are they?