Theres 5 ferries from Dover each day that take foot passengers but the reality of the situation is that market is tiny. Some people are willing to double back via St Pancras and pay the extra £35 (from Ashford) but not many Id suggest. Most people drive.
I think it will. The freight market has changed since the airport closed and there are now real on going random melt downs regularly on the chanel ports and M20. The ferries and le shuttle are in excess of capacity at peak demand. Once the freight is up and running you can attract the low cost airlines at next to no additional cost. Marston is alledgedly attracting interest from Ryanair and Easyjet as well as KLM. I think the big hurdle was the planning which is passed.
The easiest way nowadays is to take your bike. That way you can use all ferries from Dover to Calais and Dunkerque and you avoid the excessively early check in times on the few P&O foot passenger sailings.
If moving to Folkestone does no longer mean I can easily go to Calais for a day trip, one of the advantages of the town is lost.
Newhaven-Dieppe is both foot and cycle passenger friendly. However they are much less frequent crossings and it's a longer crossing at 4 hours. Also, Newhaven may appear to be near Kent on a map but it is at the far western end of East Sussex and to get there from Kent requires using either the A26 or A259 through various towns and hilly areas on single carriageway roads of variable quality. From chatting to people in the queue, Newhaven tends to attract custom from people west of Sussex heading to the west of France, especially with younger children, for whom the 4hr crossing replaces what would otherwise be a long drive along both coasts.
To be honest it depends where youre going. I live on the Kent & East Sussex Border near Rye and Newhaven is about 1 hours drive from my home.
Agreed. It's a shame the fast ferry stopped, you used to be able to get a nice day trip out round Dieppe (a lovely town) with a 2hr crossing.
Are foot passengers still allowed? I can’t get clear info on the DFDS website to confirm if you can. But there is a section when talking about Calais that says ‘foot crossings to France are currently suspended’. I’m not sure if that refers to just the Calais route or Dieppe as well.
Yes, 100% Foot passengers are allowed on Newhaven-Dieppe.
There is that ferry company using sailboats!
Other way round, the Channel Tunnel was a bit of a sucker punch, but low cost Airlines are what absolutely trashed the cross-channel options.
In hindsight the channel tunnel was a mistake, what was needed was a roadrail link like the Oresund. I think the plan was to give railfreight a boost but the reality is that Kent is just full of moribound yards and loops and what we desperately need is a road link.
Fingerprinting those passengers in Dover is going to be a joy of joys.
A road link was examined, but in the final reckoning was decided to be not financially viable. It would have been full of technical challenges, not least ensuring sufficient ventilation. The EuroRoute proposal (see the excellent article here: https://www.roads.org.uk/articles/euroroute).
Dollands Moor is quite well used to be fair. The bigger problem was forcing HS1 to have some freight capacity, rather than focusing freight onto the classic network and leaving HS1 as a pure passenger line. Investment in the pinch points of the network would have benefitted regular passengers as well.
The stark reality is that if youd based the Channel Tunnel financial viability on it subsequent actual results not only would it not have been viable it would have been firmly in the basket case category and much worse than the road crossing.
Given the differences in scale of the challenges, it's fair to say that the road route would have encountered worse problems and run up far more debt than the Channel Tunnel eventually did. I've no doubt that more vehicles would be crossing, but would it be enough to cover the increased costs?
Google Maps merge pictures over several days, leading to interesting situations of half-disappeared trains or merged trains at other locations. Look on RTT, trains are running. It's by no means the busiest yard in the country, but it's in use and has capacity for future growth.
Sadly, on this point I agree.
Without the quote can't be sure where the tube was mentioned, but the Southeastern 395s do still run St Pancras to Stratford, and I believe this is what that 10 minute journey time is referring to.
Via London.
Ebbsfleet is extremely effective, being close to the M25/A2 crossroads, and thus easily accessible by car drivers from large parts of London and North Kent. It also has the rail connections to the entirety of the North Kent lines, which Ashford does not.
Hardly useless. OK doubling back to St Pancras adds 1h30 + 1h check in, but then it's 2h30 to Paris and definitely beats the current lottery on queuing for the ferry and driving on the other side.
It costs £0 to keep the name as it is, but will cost 6 figures or more to remove the name. Leave it, as a warning to others about the follies of Political ambitions. Also, Ebbsfleet is far better for passengers from the edges of London/North of London/Essex etc to access than Ashford. Ashford is very inconvenient if, for example, Operation Stack/Brock is in effect.
I think it is called SailLink.
For these reasons, I can see the potential for Ebbsfleet to reopen at some point, rather than Ashford. Also, it can take pressure off the overcrowded St Pancras holding pen.
This looks fascinating. I shall follow with interest!
Sorry but thats wrong. Its now much easier and cheaper to drive direct via le shuttle to any of Eurostars current destinations with the possible exception of Central Paris. Le Shuttle for cars does occasionally have its moments if you choose to travel mid morning on the first weekend of the school holidays but certainly not like queing down the road like at St Pancras.
The problem is that you would need 2 stations with (expensive) security and border facilities within 10 minutes of each other; While a stop may drive a few more passengers the number will be very small (SE offer a train connection that literally takes 7 minutes), while the high costs would just make the service less attractive, almost certainly costing you more passengers than you gain. There is simply no case for a stop there