But so far there has been no confirmation of whether services will return to Kent...
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
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00:00Full steam ahead.
00:02That's the message from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, who are looking to establish
00:08a service to run through the Channel Tunnel and compete with Eurostar.
00:15The green signal comes after a ruling from the Office of Rail and Road, who say some
00:21capacity at Eurostar's Temple Mills maintenance depot in London could be made available to
00:28other operators.
00:30A depot for storing and maintaining trains is considered a necessity for running services
00:37on the line, though there's still no confirmation whether cross-continent travel will return
00:45to the county.
00:46We want to see more really.
00:49It's great that there has been this commitment to allowing the trains to utilise the maintenance
00:56yard, which is obviously a major hurdle for the train operators to overcome.
01:01But as it currently stands, we're missing that commitment to say trains will be stopping
01:07at Ashford, trains will be stopping at Ebbsfleet.
01:11Eurostar trains have not stopped in Kent since 2020, despite tens of thousands signing a
01:17petition calling for the return of services.
01:22In the counties, politicians have tried getting rail links back on track, speaking to both
01:28Eurostar and Virgin.
01:30The work will be completed on the day it stops in Ashford, but it is good news that more
01:38and more operators, you probably heard about another operator, Gemini, recently came out
01:44and they want to operate as well.
01:46So there is a huge market.
01:50This is the future travel method, the train travelling to Europe.
01:55So I'm very positive, especially after meeting with Virgin a few weeks ago, I'm very positive
02:03that they are considering Ashford as one of their stops.
02:06Eurostar says the depot is effectively full for major maintenance work and would need
02:12investment to meet the demand for international rail.
02:17But while there are no guarantees yet, a return ticket for continental travel is more
02:24realistic now than it has been for a long time.
02:29Oliver Leader, The Sacks, for KMTV.