Could Eurostar mitigate capacity problems at St Pancras by using Stratford international for some services?

[Pdf]

It seems that a major capacity bottleneck for international trains is space for security/passport control at St Pancras. It was in the news today that capacity at St Pancs is supposedly down by a third due to additional checks required post Brexit [1] (lets not turn this thread into an argument about whether this is worth it or on train passport control, that has been done to death) which probably played a factor in Eurostar canning the Disneyland service.

Could Stratford International be economically (re)commissioned in order to run more trains through the channel tunnel?
Do the international facilities in place have enough capacity to terminate trains there? (Does Stratford Mainline have the capacity for the additional transferring passengers?)
Could the border stations be manned economically? (If E* can afford border agents at Ashford and Ebbsfleet, surely they could afford them here or is there more to it?)
Could fares be set low enough to attract passengers away from St Pancras? (Stratford isn't _too_ hard to get to over St Pancs and might even be easier for those in East London or Essex and possibly even The City thanks to Crossrail, it's unlikely to attract many French tourists though without significantly cheaper fares)

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...educed-eurostars-terminal-capacity-by-a-third

 

[Bald Rick]

Similar discussion on another Eurostar thread:

Eurostar not serving Kent.

I think it is a load of old cobblers to blame Brexit and COVID. These two events are just being used as a convenient excuse for a bit of cost cutting and saving money. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/23/eurostar-says-trains-will-not-stop-kent-two-three-years-blames/ Eurostar...

www.railforums.co.uk

but in short:

Could Stratford International be economically (re)commissioned in order to run more trains through the channel tunnel?

Not economically, and the international part of Stratford was never commissioned.

Do the international facilities in place have enough capacity to terminate trains there? (Does Stratford Mainline have the capacity for the additional transferring passengers?)

No, as there are, and never have been, international facilities there

Could the border stations be manned economically? (If E* can afford border agents at Ashford and Ebbsfleet, surely they could afford them here or is there more to it?)

No, hence why they are not at Ashford and Ebbsfleet

Could fares be set low enough to attract passengers away from St Pancras?

No. Increasing costs while reducing income does not make for a good business model.

 

[Trainbike46]

As per the letter the guardian article is based on, in addition to the reduction of St Pancras capacity to 1500 pax/h (from 2200 pax/h), eurostar has a lot of expensive debt as the UK government refused to support Eurostar during covid and there is a shortage of border staff (presumably french, but not explicitly stated).
The first means eurostar needs to run trains as full as possible, so a service from Stratford would need to attract 750/900 passengers (depending on whether it is using an e300/e320).

The second means that, untill something resolves the staff shortages, a border official at Stratford means one less at St Pancras, so not increasing overall eurostar capacity.

There also the inherent issue that, in order to make efficient use of both the staff and facilities at stratford, you would have to run regular trains to fill up at least one shift. So you wouldn't have to fill just one train, but you would have to fill up probably at least 4 (a train every 2 hours during a single 8-hour shift). That seems like a tall order.

The solution for this issue is hopefully going to come with EES, when, after an initial start-up period, things should go smoother.

If that doesn't fix it, a stratford plan could be revisited, but in the short term we will probably have to live with the reduced capacity, unfortunately

 

[30907]

There also the inherent issue that, in order to make efficient use of both the staff and facilities at stratford, you would have to run regular trains to fill up at least one shift. So you wouldn't have to fill just one train, but you would have to fill up probably at least 4 (a train every 2 hours during a single 8-hour shift). That seems like a tall order.

Quite. Ebbsfleet might be a better bet, as it is already equipped for the purpose, but I assume that it doesn't have anything like the capacity to process a full trainload in reasonable time, even with full staffing. Anyone know?

 

[Bald Rick]

Quite. Ebbsfleet might be a better bet, as it is already equipped for the purpose, but I assume that it doesn't have anything like the capacity to process a full trainload in reasonable time, even with full staffing. Anyone know?

It does not.

 

[4BEP]

It seems that a major capacity bottleneck for international trains is space for security/passport control at St Pancras. It was in the news today that capacity at St Pancs is supposedly down by a third due to additional checks required post Brexit [1] (lets not turn this thread into an argument about whether this is worth it or on train passport control, that has been done to death) which probably played a factor in Eurostar canning the Disneyland service.

Could Stratford International be economically (re)commissioned in order to run more trains through the channel tunnel?
Do the international facilities in place have enough capacity to terminate trains there? (Does Stratford Mainline have the capacity for the additional transferring passengers?)
Could the border stations be manned economically? (If E* can afford border agents at Ashford and Ebbsfleet, surely they could afford them here or is there more to it?)
Could fares be set low enough to attract passengers away from St Pancras? (Stratford isn't _too_ hard to get to over St Pancs and might even be easier for those in East London or Essex and possibly even The City thanks to Crossrail, it's unlikely to attract many French tourists though without significantly cheaper fares)

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...educed-eurostars-terminal-capacity-by-a-third

Eurostar are not stopping at Ebbsfleet or Ashford and according to the new CEO are unlikely to in the near future.

 

[zwk500]

A further point for Stratford is that the track layout is heavily restrictive for reversing international trains. You would require either extensive wrong-road running or a double-shunt (if you didn't run all the way to St Pancras just to reverse).