I sit on the excitingly named “European Sub Committee B” which scrutinises European legislation to do with infrastructure. Currently we are looking at the “4th Railway Package” which is essentially about freeing up railway infrastructure so that it is easier for people to travel by train across Europe and easier for train companies of different nationalities to compete to run trains on other countries’ tracks.
The problem is that while countries support this in principle, once it is applied to their own country they would really rather their own train companies got preference over anyone else’s. As a result some countries have not yet got round to adopting the 1st railway package – let alone, the 2nd and 3rd.
This has interesting ramifications for the answer to my question. Michael Hesseltine had a vision about regenerating the East End after the closure of the Docks and helped get Stratford International Station (yes, next door to the Olympic Park) built, with the expectation that trains would run from Liverpool to London and on into France. However, at the moment, Eurostar, which is the only operator of trains from London to Paris, does not stop there.
The reason? The majority of people want to get as quickly as possible from central London to central Paris. Now, if there were some competition (there is plenty of room on the tracks), maybe a train would stop there.
Why is there no competition? Partly it is alleged because the fees for access to the Channel Tunnel are so high (the European Commission has threatened Court action on France and Britain if they don’t lower charges). But also, Deutsche Bahn has been waiting for three years for a licence (a German company trying to use a French/UK tunnel). Separately, Germany itself has been threatened with court action if Deutsche Bahn is not more transparent about subsidies.
So, I believe an international train will one day stop at Stratford, but not any day soon.
When will an international train stop at Birmingham or Manchester as originally promised? Probably never. People from outside London will always have to change at St Pancras for a train through the tunnel. So why should they then have to stop at Stratford (or Ashford, for that matter)? The minority of people who live near the Olympic Park can travel to St Pancras to catch their international trains just like everyone else.
Considering the usefulness of the Javelin shuttle service during the Olympics, between King’s Cross and Stratford International, it might make sense to look into a long term equivalent, using conventional rail stock instead of the expensive posh new trains.
Maybe an addition to the existing London Overground service?
That should be Stratford upon Avon which is much more accessible to most of the country. London is not the best place for a good train service to the rest of our people.
Which brings us to the totally inadequate service we have here in comparison to the continent. Our trains not only cost a fortune to ride, they also lack modern timetables and expectations for their customer.
In Europe you can take the train from Dusseldorf to almost anywhere and with it your car. Cheaply. This all stops at the French border. Backward and barbarian Britain’s consider it too luxurious. They don’t do bidet’s or transport. Even the train that took the car to Nice from Calais ended and was never replaced by the French.
http://www.seat61.com/Motorail.htm#.Uc6dxaybQwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nymQAwRg0lM
Why is Britain so far behind the Europeans in all things important to our citizens? It’s because we are ruled by those not connected to a working society. What comes first with our government is not what we pay them to do, but, what they see as their emoluments and their ideals on political management. And none of that coincides with the working class.
To have a modern society functioning at 2013 standards means getting rid of those who cannot connect to the needs of a society that should be working smoothly with organised thinking. Our minds are locked into yesterdays manual. They fear what they cannot comprehend.
And the real issue is, why does all this modern infrastructure cost the citizen here so much in comparison to our European neighbours? Greed couldn’t be at the back of it could it?
If, after a century of rejecting the simple way to keep clean, we still build bathrooms without modern facilities, why on earth would we join tomorrow’s world on anything called progress?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCAiJO-83-E
Going to get worse. They’ve just added another 10 billion to HS2’s cost.
Apparently they forgot that if you build a railway, you need the trains to run on it.
Ho hum. You could have 500 DLR extensions for the same cost, assuming no scaling in the cost.
Then you have the reason. There isn’t enough capacity.
Well each of the last times I’ve used a train, it was London to Brum, 5 pm on a Friday. Each time, they were running at 20% capacity.
Dear Baroness,
I am afraid that these issues might not even be close to quickly getting solved. If we consider the issues in the Netherlands concerning the Fyra (from AnsalmoBreda) and certain parts that saw the light as failings are investigated, the issues that were not seen as an issue seem even more important. If we accept that the Fyra needed two communication systems as the Dutch and Belgium system were not compatible, then the more nations seem to get involved, then the more issues will arise. It seems that if these wishes of European travel require to be so overlapping, then a more open and transparent standarised infrastructure should be agreed upon. Without it any step would be more a hurdle then a step. In addition, once that step has been resolved, then it is less likely that it matters whether it is a German, French or British train that is traversing a line or a tunnel. As for lowering tunnel fees. Is that really the issue? if so, then the total cost could be taken and those non-paying nation can pay their share of the total cost (#JustSaying).
I sat on the even less excitingly named ‘Stratford International Passenger Station Promotor Group’ in 1993/4. It was whilst sitting on this group that I first mooted the potential for an Olympic bid. So 20 years on the Games have come and gone and the legacy squandered through comprehensive strategic incompetence. I do hope that an international train service will one day stop at Stratford but I fear you are right about the timescale.
Many interesting details are being contributed;
so I wonder how relevant the relatively ‘greater’ Britain factor might be, of “too many low-bridges and tunnels to allow double-decker modern trains to run in Britain”
(the Continent appearing to have far less difficulty with tunnels and low-bridges)
with the immediate amygdalal ‘post-hoc-propter-hoc’ but also ‘group-think’ dominantly pre-emptive continental attitude being “Britain is ‘crippled’ from ever becoming a worthwhile modern-railway Country”
(is there a serious ? or series of ??? here; ?)
I think this link shows one of the most authentically mainstream American views of the European Union. It is a bit humorous too and this post made me think of it for a number of reasons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O37yJBFRrfg
A few years ago the Tokaido Shinkansen, running between Tokyo and Osaka, added a stop at Shinagawa Station in the southern outskirts of Tokyo. It has now become so important that all the 150+ trains each way per day call there. Whilst we have the additional cost of immigration and security a bit of imaginitive thinking could generate much traffic for Stratford International.