The decision was taken in 2004 after construction of phase 2 and St Pancras changes had started. The swap occured in 2007. It was entirely Eurostars decision on cost grounds after millions of taxpayers pounds had been spent.
+ Of course Stratford International; Ebsfleet International and Ashford International all sharing the customer throughput. What Eurostar have chosen to do is put an entire region's throughput through one single small chokepoint and then moan there's nothing they can do.
Ah, interesting. These things are always hard to disaggregate what Eurostar was saying for a long time and what politicians desparately wanted to believe. Stratford was similar - Politicians drove the 'International' dream, but Eurostar was saying from day 1 they wouldn't serve it.
With three times the amount of Drivers and other costs. Sounds like the sort of rabbit hole the UK rail network went down 20 years ago and is now finding it can't afford......
that explains why Waterloo had such an elaborate terminal. I always assumed it was misplanning.
Tbf it was the terminal for 13 years, it's not like they were going to cope with a portacabin for a decade and a half.
Not really, because Stratford doesn't have any of the security or passport equipment fitted. It'd also be a nightmare managing the paths in and out of St P when shunting across. The cost of operating a 2nd terminal was part of the reason why Waterloo was abandoned, so opening Stratford wouldn't be a great idea.
Would Stratford (if kitted out) have capacity for 900 passenger trains to start/terminate there, in terms of waiting room etc? On arrival passengers would be dispersed by DLR (? capacity) and by the next Javelin to St Pancras presumably? Or do arriving trains stop at Stratford and St. Pancras, but departing Brussels trains only from Stratford?
I have no idea. Either way it's not going to happen because you'd need to get the equipment from somewhere, most likely Ashford.
Arriving passengers are not the problem. I would imagine the obvious thing to do is to sell tickets from St Pancras on all trains, but stop at an intermediate station to top up the numbers. Then you avoid the issues of overloading any one station but don't have the operational problems of trying to turn short. However you'd go for Ebbsfleet not Stratford if you're re-opening any of the stations on HS1.
Buy some more? It isn't a limited commodity. Move the existing stuff from both Ashford and Ebbsfleet.
But Ebbsfleet only produced relatively (to a 900 seat train) small numbers of passengers. This is not going to make sufficient difference. Stratford is more likely to produce worthwhile numbers (if the infrastructure can cope of course?)
5 seconds x 2000 people per hour = 10,000 seconds per hour. That's a lot of delay. Brexit is not solely responsible, but it certainly is a factor. Or, more accurately, the way Brexit has eventually been done.
The most likely solution would be to move the Business premier lounge upstairs and either block off the level access to the SE platforms (which cannot be sent anywhere else) or modify the route slightly, that would then give a little bit more wriggle room in the standard lounge downstairs. Anything more drastic and you're looking at taking out retail space that funds the railway.
The bigger issue with Waterloo is the capacity impact of domestic services on international paths. But now it's moot because SWR has taken back the international platforms and Eurostar has the e320s which don't fit on the SE lines and removed the third rail shoes from the e300s.
That costs more than reopening the station it's already installed at.
Stratford is also closer to St Pancras, and within central London, so is less attractive as an alternative than Ebbsfleet. The only passengers that would be more attracted to Stratford than St P are those coming from East Anglia and certain parts of London. It's also an operational nightmare for Eurostar as it stops the trains getting up to the 230kph linespeed for any significant length of time before slowing for the stop.
I was considering this in the light of the suggestion that the Brussels / (Amsterdam) service started at Stratford, with the Paris service departing from St Pancras, in order to reduce passenger congestion at the passport control and in the waiting area. This would mean that Stratford would be the only London departure point for Brussels and Amsterdam (with pax getting there by Javelin from St. P or via other trains/buses to Stratford and the DLR link). Arriving trains would stop at Stratford and St. P
However it will make less money then just sticking with St Pancras. And at the moment Eurostar need to prioritise making money within the conditions as they are.
That will depend on how much it would cost to do and how much demand is being choked off. When E* get to that sweet spot they can then consider the option.
I think another problem is that Stratford, whilst well connected for passengers from within London it is a lot less attractive to passengers arriving from anywhere that runs into Kings Cross, St Pancras or Euston (assuming 10 mins walk down Euston Road is practical). This covers a large part of the UK from the London/Cambridge/Kings Lynn line to London/Birmingham/NW England, and everything in between, i.e. 8 out of 10 of the next largest UK cities. (depends on how you look at population, with only Bristol and Portsmouth/Southampton appearing in the top teir but outside the Euston/Kings Cross/St Pancras catchment)
Judging from the fact that Eurostar is selling the majority of the tickets it can sell, it doesn't look like demand is being choked off at all. Stratford would take several million to open, and then several hundred thousand annually to maintain.
I'm not doubting you. It might be cheaper than a complete rework of St. Pancras though.
Maybe. I think waiting for the new border procedures will be cheaper still though.
As I said, it is not a very nice solution, but possibly cheaper than reworking St. Pancras. It would only affect these passengers in the one direction, which is easily connected by the Javelin service from St. P to Stratford. Not quite as convenient as the current arrangements, I know.
I think that you might have turned this on its head - the UK can control who uses which lanes at the entry check, in Lille, Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The UK cannot control who is permitted to use which lanes, or what the border guards do and how long it takes, at the Schengen entry check.
If they are processing 1500 people per hour, then 900 people should only take 35 minutes. How many passport control booths are there at St Pancras? Assuming each person takes 15 seconds to check, then each booth could process 240 people per hour. Six booths would be 1440 people per hour.
Would the Javelin service be able to cope with the additional passengers and their luggage for the hop to Stratford?
Probably not if the whole train had to shuttle up on it, but of course there are other ways of getting to Stratford.
That is exactly my experience too.
