Living in the dark and distant corner of South-East Kent as I do, we’ve long suffered the long duration travel into London. The fastest trains took an hour and ten minutes, while most took an hour and thirty.
Now we’ve got a super duper high speed train line which has been trumpetted left right and centre as the answer to everyones requirements, including a dramatic lift in house prices – Ashford to London in 37 minutes, wooo!
I’ve been trying it for the last month and it’s definitely “most impressive”. The train stops once on its journey into London, at some place called Ebbsfleet International, which appears to be a ‘Ghost Station’ as no one ever gets on or off here. Spooky.
You arrive in London when you’d normally be expecting to arrive in Tonbridge. It’s almost wierd.
Unfortunately, it’s on arrival in London that the whole ‘high speed’ thing falls apart.
Historically, Ashford trains have arrived at Cannon Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross and (occasionally) Victoria. Three out of four of these Stations are in the South East of the Capital, and service the City areas and down towards Westminster. Most commuters are therefore city types or politicoes of some kind or other. I, for example, have a ten minute walk from Cannon Street.
The high speed lines arrives into St. Pancras (or Kings Cross as most people will know it) and that’s in the North of the Capital.
It’s a mere four or five miles from the CIty or Westminister, but it might as well be fifty because it takes a ridiculous 25 minutes to make the journey by tube or overground train from St. Pancras back to the City or Westminster.
This is made up of 5 minutes (fast) walking from the highspeed platform to the underground, 15 minutes on the tube (on a good day) and then another 5 minutes walking back up to ground level.
Comparing like for like the highspeed service saves only 20 minutes each way door to door, yet costs an extra £110 a month (monthly fare) with the added hassle of switching trains and standing up for the last part of the journey on a sweaty unpleasant tube train.
It is SO frustrating to cover 60+ miles in 37 minutes and then find yourself taking 25 minutes to cover a mere 4.
So in summary the trains are a dream, unfortunately the journey is a nightmare. I’m going back to the old service. It might be slow, but it’s much more pleasant. Right now I can only recommend it for Friday afternoons to get home early.
ps. It may improve when the service to Stratford International opens, but that’s not until the new year. Will keep you posted.
Agree 100%.
My employer’s London offices are in Upper Thames street and in the Gherkin. Both simple enough to get to from Cannon Street, or from Bank (via Waterloo & City line) if your feeling adventurous.
But, as you say, not so much fun from St Pancras. Especially when you sit in the tunnel for 20 mins between Old Street and Moorgate because someone decided to “pull the chain” on the train in front. As happened the last time I used HS1.
Advantage lost.
Also agree that the best part is coming home. That journey doesn’t seem at all that bad. I think it’s probably because you start on the slower mode of transport and work your way up the speed “ladder” the closer you get to home…!
Chris
Give me a buzz next time you’re in the Gherkin Chris! I’m across the road – I work for Lloyd’s of London!
It has saved me over hour each way so I’m a fan of HS service, I would rather pay a bit more for the faster journey, than weight around on the old service. Long live HS Ebbsfleet train.
Sammy
Oh the British train services!
We “enjoy” them whenever we are in Oxted, just outside the London Circular Parkway (or London Orbital, as some people call it). From Oxted to Victoria it takes (or at least took the last time we’ve been there) about three quarters of an hour in a crammed commuter train. This is painful even if you are “just a tourist” with no fixed timeframe. It must be hell to be forced to use this every day.
I’d be inclined to agree with Sammy, actually. No matter which way you look at it, you still save time of a morning, and let’s face it noone likes the dawn commute. It’s good value for money considering how fast it actually is, especially since I work in Stratford and from St Pancras to Stratford now is only 7 minutes.
Jen