Eurostar not to serve new station at Stratford
London TravelWatch today expressed disappointment that Eurostar do not propose to stop any trains at the brand new Stratford International station when they begin operating from St Pancras in 2007. The trains will run through the station, en route to or from St Pancras without stopping. Eurostar will also stop serving Waterloo at the same time
Brian Cooke, Chairman, London TravelWatch said: "This is will be a huge disappointment to many millions of people who would find joining or leaving Eurostar trains at Stratford much more convenient. Billions of pounds of public money has gone into building both the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the three new stations (at St Pancras, Ebbsfleet and Stratford), for one of them not to open when it is ready. Stratford is a much more convenient interchange for those going to or coming from places such as Docklands, the City, Westminster, as well as South, South East London and East Anglia, let alone the immediate Stratford area."
London TravelWatch accept that until the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to the international station is complete (scheduled in 2010) the transfer between the International and domestic stations will not be ideal, but it believes that with effort of the part of several organisations (Eurostar, London and Continental, builders of the station and rail link, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Borough of Newham) that a solution could easily be found. London TravelWatch will continue to pressurise all these organisations to try to find an early solution.
Brian Cooke continued: "The distance between the two stations is only around 400 metres, and while we understand that building works for both the Olympics and the Stratford City development make this not an ideal transfer, we do believe that not stopping the international trains there is simply a cop-out. The millions of people that will find Stratford a more convenient interchange do not deserve to wait three years and see the trains pass through non-stop. We shall also be writing to the Government to ask why they have spent all this money on a station that is not planned to be used for some years."
The voice of London's transport users
12 September 2006