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Eurostar at Ashford International?

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FlippyFF

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Joined
5 Jan 2014
Messages
240
Location
Ashford, Kent
Can anyone shed any light on what's going on with Eurostar at Ashford please? The service seems to have been reduced in the last few weeks.

For example, there was a Tue-Thu(/Fri?) 07:28 departure to Bruxelles Midi but that now non-stops Ashford but has a 14 minute stop at Ebbsfleet instead. I haven't noticed it being worked by a 374 so that doesn't seem to be the reason.

Looking at today's (21/Aug) Eurostar services at Ashford (RTT), we've had the following:

9O23 Paris - St Pancras at 12:10
9O32 St Pancras - Paris at 14:55
9O59 Paris - St Pancras at 21:11

In two weeks time, we seem to be back to the normal level of service:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...4/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=ES

Is this related to the 374 signalling issues at Ashford or just a reduced level of service during the school holidays?


TIA

Simon
 
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RailUK Forums

CMS

Member
Joined
12 Aug 2009
Messages
181
It's a ridiculous situation, the 'amended timetable' is in this link: https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/service-information/eurostar-travel-updates .

Last month, it was random stops moved. This month Brussels trains don't stop. Next month Paris trains don't stop. Why not just shut Ashford altogether for a while if it's going to be so unreliable? You only have to look at Twitter to see endless tales of angry passengers when trains have been changed to e320 and they've ended up going to St Pancras or stressing out about Javelins. I was on a train recently where this happened and the train crew were good and explained it, but there was nothing to say any of this at Brussels Midi - people overheard the announcements just after Lille and went "ahhh". Also noted that at Lille, the SNCF platform screens still said Ashford.

I'm on that train at the moment. It is a 374. I don't know if there were any signalling problems, but we didn't seem to stop for long at Ashford
That train was a refurb 373 aka an 'e300'. I had a friend travelling on it. e320s cannot go through Ashford station at all at the moment.
 

bspahh

Established Member
Joined
5 Jan 2017
Messages
1,725
It's a ridiculous situation, the 'amended timetable' is in this link: https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/service-information/eurostar-travel-updates .

Last month, it was random stops moved. This month Brussels trains don't stop. Next month Paris trains don't stop. Why not just shut Ashford altogether for a while if it's going to be so unreliable? You only have to look at Twitter to see endless tales of angry passengers when trains have been changed to e320 and they've ended up going to St Pancras or stressing out about Javelins. I was on a train recently where this happened and the train crew were good and explained it, but there was nothing to say any of this at Brussels Midi - people overheard the announcements just after Lille and went "ahhh". Also noted that at Lille, the SNCF platform screens still said Ashford.


That train was a refurb 373 aka an 'e300'. I had a friend travelling on it. e320s cannot go through Ashford station at all at the moment.

Oops. You're right. The number on the front power car was 3999
 

DEE-DE

Member
Joined
25 Oct 2014
Messages
125
Looks like they've updated the amended timetable again. My train was listed as calling at Ebbsfleet only last time I checked but today I saw it listed as stopping at Ashford only again.
 

leshuttle

Member
Joined
12 Jan 2007
Messages
133
Location
London
It looks like the timetables are still having to be changed through the rest of autumn for some Ashford stops. Any news yet on the e320 signalling progress?
 
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