High Speed Rail Focus

Domestic services

Kent already benefits from fast rail services to the continent, contributing to high levels of interest from foreign investors. The introduction of the high speed domestic service, operated by Southeastern from 13 December 2009, and the limited preview services, which started in June 2009, mean the county will be even better connected for business. The high speed passenger services will run from Kent to London on High Speed 1 (HS1), the UK’s first high speed domestic rail line. The new fleet of 29 trains has been built by Hitachi and can reach top speeds of 140 mph.

Ebbsfleet International will be just 17 minutes away from St Pancras International, while the journey to Ashford will take just 37 minutes. The Olympic site will be only 11 minutes from Ebbsfleet International. The new services will also make Kent much more accessible from key cities in the Midlands and the North, with Leicester taking approximately 1h 30, Sheffield about 2h 30 and Leeds just over 3 hours from Ebbsfleet International.

On June 29 2009, Southeastern launched its ‘preview’ services allowing passengers to experience the fastest domestic train service in the UK six months before the full launch in December. The initial stage previewed services from Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International to St Pancras International. The service was so popular some trains were doubled in length within days.

In September, the preview services were extended to Dover, Folkestone, Canterbury and Ramsgate along with an increase in the existing Ashford and Ebbsfleet services. Southeastern are delighted the preview services have proved so popular and will continue to enhance them until December. From December the full services will increase during peak times, for example there will be 12 trains from Ebbsfleet to St Pancras in the morning, with a lower frequency of trains off-peak for most stations.

Other stations to benefit from the service include Folkestone Central with a journey time of 57 minutes to St Pancras International, Canterbury West 59 minutes, Ramsgate 80 minutes and Strood 31 minutes.

The new service has also created extra capacity on the mainline and metro networks in the areas of the county not directly benefiting from High Speed, resulting in many Kent passengers seeing an improvement in services from December. For example, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge will see four and five extra peak trains respectively and Sevenoaks will benefit from an extra eight peak trains. Overall, taking into account all three services, there will be approximately 200 extra trains every weekday. However, despite this, there are a small number of services that will be withdrawn, such as the service from Maidstone East via London Bridge to Cannon Street/Charing Cross.

International services

Positioned between the markets of London and Europe, Kent is the closest UK location to continental Europe. Ebbsfleet International Station and Ashford International Station offer easy access from Kent to many important business destinations in Europe such as Lille, Paris, Brussels and other European cities.

Eurostar has been providing the high speed rail service from the UK to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel since 1994. In November 2007, Eurostar launched services from its new London station at St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International, with the completion of the second section of the UK's first high-speed line, High Speed 1. Since then journey times have fallen with Ebbsfleet-Paris taking 2h 05, Ebbsfleet-Brussels 1h 41 and Ebbsfleet-Lille just 1h 10.

New high-speed rail lines in Europe have also brought a number of other locations closer to Kent, for example Amsterdam is only 4h 45 from Ebbsfleet International and Strasbourg just over 5 hours from Ashford International.

The impact of high speed rail services

In 2008 MVA Consultancy carried out work for Kent County Council to achieve an understanding and consensus about the opportunities associated with the introduction of high speed rail services in Kent. The report showed that commuters from Kent to London have higher incomes than non-commuters and non-rail users, and linked high speed rail services to higher incomes from commuters. The report considered the extent that high speed services might attract new residents to Kent, specifically commuters to London. It concluded that there is potential for new people to be attracted to Kent to take advantage of the combination of lower house prices and shorter journey times to central London.

Other studies have indicated that companies might consider the presence of high speed rail links when considering the location of their business. Centrality and connectivity are important factors in the choice of office locations, with connectivity effects resulting from reduced travel times.