International rail competition is coming, but not to Kent

Catch up

Five different companies supply Kent’s drinking water, which means neighbouring households can face different hosepipe rules, and even checking the bill may not tell you who supplies the tap. We traced the county’s absurd water map through nearly 200 years of local boards, mergers and privatisation.

In Dover, six candidates are fighting for a seat on a council that will shortly disappear, including three competing versions of the political right. We examined a by-election featuring John Cleese, AI-generated cliffs, compulsory beach photographs and an argument about whether counties still belong on envelopes.

Steven also met Gravesham MP Lauren Sullivan to discuss restoring the Tilbury Ferry, reorganising local government, her route from medical science to Parliament and why Westminster should resemble the places it represents. Read their conversation here.

International rail competition is coming, but not to Kent

We have written fairly often about the possible return of international rail services to Kent. There have been campaigns, petitions, rival operators, economic studies and supportive statements from ministers. Last year, Kent County Council even held an event inside the unused international facilities at Ashford and Ebbsfleet.

International trains still do not stop at either station.

The latest development is more concrete than most. The Office of Rail and Road has pre-approved a track access agreement allowing Virgin Trains to operate up to 20 daily return services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

The regulator made the decision on Thursday and announced it today. Virgin and London St Pancras Highspeed, which operates HS1, can now enter into the agreement by 4 September. Once signed, it would give Virgin access rights lasting from October 2030 until the end of 2040.

Services would begin with six daily trains in each direction between London and Paris. That would increase to ten the following April and 13 from October 2031. Four daily Brussels services would begin in February 2031, followed by three to Amsterdam that September.

The Amsterdam rights would become conditional if the total number of outward international services from St Pancras exceeded 42 in one day. Firm rights must be accommodated before conditional ones when the timetable is constructed.

Virgin still has substantial work to do. It must procure its trains, secure access to the railways on the other side of the Channel and obtain safety approvals in Britain and the EU. The agreement includes a deadline by which the rights will lapse if it does not procure its rolling stock.

Even so, Virgin now has approval for access to the Temple Mills maintenance depot and is close to securing long-term rights on HS1. Its plans are moving beyond the series of proposals and announcements that have characterised attempts to compete with Eurostar.

For Kent, the significant part of the decision is that none of the services will stop here. The agreement states that Virgin’s trains will call only at London St Pancras on the HS1 network.

By October 2030, it will have been more than ten years since international services last stopped at Ashford or Ebbsfleet. The first new competitor to Eurostar is currently planning to pass through both.

Kent MPs, councils and development bodies took part in the consultation and argued for the stations to reopen. The regulator recognised the strong support for international services in Kent, but it cannot require Virgin to provide them.

Virgin or another operator can submit a separate application for rights to serve Ashford or Ebbsfleet. The ORR says it would actively engage with anyone seeking to do so. Virgin has previously said it would stop in Kent if the stations were reopened, but that leaves the responsibility for restoring the facilities elsewhere.

The agreement does not prevent Kent stops from being added later. An existing service could be amended rather than requiring a completely new train path. However, the first major agreement for a new operator establishes a service pattern that excludes the county, with Virgin’s firm rights protected until 2040.

Accommodating the new services will require moving some Eurostar trains from non-standard paths into standardised slots, alongside minor changes to Southeastern services, freight and engineering movements. The regulator believes HS1 can manage the additional traffic, but the rights still represent a substantial allocation of railway capacity.

For years, Kent’s campaign has rested on the argument that competition offered the best chance of restoring services. Eurostar has no plans to return, so local leaders turned their attention to operators seeking to break its monopoly.

Competition is now closer, but Kent services are not.

The problem began with the regulator’s decision over spare capacity at Eurostar’s Temple Mills depot last October. Virgin, Gemini, Evolyn and Trenitalia all applied, but there was room for only one new operator.

The ORR concluded that Virgin had the most developed proposal and the strongest likelihood of delivering it. Gemini proposed serving Ebbsfleet and exploring an Ashford stop, while Trenitalia later announced plans for Ashford, although that commitment was not included in its formal submission.

The regulator concluded that Gemini’s proposal most closely addressed the wishes of Kent stakeholders. It still chose Virgin because it had greater confidence that Virgin’s operation would happen.

That was a reasonable distinction for a regulator concerned with deliverability. It also meant the operator offering the most to Kent lost the essential depot capacity to one offering no confirmed stop at all.

The latest consultation raised further concerns about how capacity was allocated. Eurostar, Gemini and FS Group, the owner of Trenitalia, questioned the fairness and transparency of the process. They argued that Virgin had been given the opportunity to secure long-term rights before other operators had a realistic chance to compete.

There were also objections to treating the proposed capacity as occupied for planning purposes before the ORR approved the agreement. London St Pancras Highspeed accepted that the draft had no legal effect at that stage but said the paths were being treated as unavailable while the application was considered.

The regulator rejected those objections. It said other operators were discussing possible future rights, but no competing track access applications had been submitted. Its role was to decide whether to approve the agreement before it, not to compare it with plans that had not reached that point.

This means the competing benefits were not tested against each other. The regulator did not choose between a Virgin service that bypassed Kent and another application that included it. Only Virgin had an agreement ready for approval.

Some consultees also raised concerns about Equitix having financial interests in both London St Pancras Highspeed and Virgin’s proposal. The ORR says it was satisfied with the recusals and other governance controls introduced. The decision does not suggest the process was improper, but the overlapping interests added to the objections raised by Virgin’s competitors.

Kent’s remaining hope may now sit on a disused railway site in Ashford, although that proposal is considerably less advanced.

KentOnline reported last week that Gemini wants to use the former Chart Leacon works as its maintenance base after losing access to Temple Mills.

According to its reporting, Gemini believes it would require a 200-metre shed covering two tracks and only a small part of the wider site. The company is considering either buying and upgrading Chart Leacon before subletting space to other operators, or renting the section it needs. It says potential investors are waiting for the government to decide how to provide additional international depot capacity.

The site itself is credible. Chart Leacon was used for railway maintenance until 2014, and its former buildings were demolished in 2020. Network Rail previously planned a new light maintenance facility with five sidings there and secured government approval for powers to acquire the necessary land. The depot was never built.

Gemini now presents Chart Leacon as part of a plan to stop trains at both Ashford and Ebbsfleet, with Stratford International serving as its main London station. A depot in Ashford could bring skilled jobs as well as making the town part of the operation rather than another station passed at speed.

None of it has been secured. Gemini does not have an agreement to buy or lease Chart Leacon, a confirmed funding package or government approval to develop the depot. It also needs trains, track and station access, border facilities and safety approval.

The ORR previously judged Gemini’s overall plans potentially financially viable but had less confidence in its readiness than Virgin’s. Its Temple Mills decision found that Gemini had not explained how the substantial redevelopment of Stratford International would be funded and had not identified the costs of restoring international services at Ebbsfleet.

The Department for Transport accepts that a lack of depot capacity is restricting competition and has explored whether private investors might finance additional facilities. That was preliminary market engagement, not a commitment to Chart Leacon or any other site.

The contrast is now fairly simple. Virgin has regulatory approvals, a proposed start date and an agreement for trains that will not stop in Kent. Gemini offers more to Kent on paper but lacks the depot or railway rights needed to operate.

Virgin could still add Ashford or Ebbsfleet. The government could choose Chart Leacon for new depot capacity. Gemini or another operator could eventually secure the necessary agreements.

None of those things has happened.

Kent’s campaign helped make the case for opening the route to competition. That competition may now arrive in shiny new trains in 2030, after more than a decade without local international services and with no way for anyone in Kent to board them.

Three big reads

1️⃣ At the Dartford Crossing, the AA has proposed suspending the charge when roadworks leave drivers stuck in heavy congestion. Motorists would therefore no longer pay for the privilege of going nowhere, an innovation which may alarm anyone responsible for Britain’s transport policy. The Telegraph has more.

2️⃣ Space is also at a premium on the Kent coast. In Whitstable, plans to extend the Forge oyster shack on to the beach have attracted more than 200 objections, including one from the Environment Agency. The Guardian examines a dispute involving flood defences, public access and whether the town has finally reached peak oyster. Read it here.

3️⃣ In Broadstairs, meanwhile, the far right found plenty of room on a deserted business park. Around 150 anti-migrant protesters, many brought in from elsewhere in the south-east, marched from a closed Pizza Hut to oppose an HMO that is not planned to house migrants. Searchlight endured the speeches, the broken PA and the AI country song so you don't have to. Read its account here.

In brief

🚓 A Faversham councillor reported on Facebook that a window at his parents' house was smashed. Inevitably, the Facebook comments are full of people taking great pleasure in this.

🚰 This week's water outages included Cranbrook, Charing, and Challock.

💰 Meanwhile, our friends at KentOnline are publishing paid advertorials on how great Southern Water are doing.

🚧 Barriers have been installed on Sandwich Toll Bridge to enforce a closure that drivers kept ignoring. Incidentally, the bridge has been closed since, er, one of Southern Water's tankers crashed into it.

☀️ Councillors in Romney Marsh want a solar farm project moved 'up north' because that's exactly how these things work.

🔥 Kent has proved remarkably combustible this week.

🚒 'Poor security' at Arlington House in Margate led to an arson attack in the building.

🚘 Somehow, a car in Sittingbourne managed to crash into the upstairs of a house.

🧸 An argument has led to a display of bizarre effigies in Littlebourne.

🏌️ Luxury golf resort, the Cave, near Faversham, has scrapped plans to develop an extensive country club-style resort.

🍷 Finding at least one positive in climate change, the BBC reports that Kent is now a wine hotspot following 'perfect' weather.

Council matters

Meetings this week:

• Thanet: Overview & Scrutiny Committee will discuss safety issues at Arlington House, the Corporate Plan, and, most excitingly, the Car Park Signage Plan on Tuesday.
• Ashford: Planning Committee will decide on 34 flats off Elwick Road on Wednesday.

New planning applications:

• Dartford: Construction of a Lidl store in Stone.
• Medway: Scoping opinion for 360 homes north of Rede Court Road in Strood.
• Tunbridge Wells: 184 homes and relocation of Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club.

Property of the week

This is a four-bedroom bungalow near Charing that packs an awful lot into a single storey. Set on 1.85 acres with views towards the North Downs, it revolves around a 44ft open-plan kitchen, dining and living space with vaulted ceilings and enough glazing to keep the countryside in view wherever you sit. The main bedroom has a dressing room and en suite, while outside there is a terrace complete with an outdoor kitchen, bar, barbecue and pizza oven. The specification also includes solar panels, battery storage, rainwater harvesting and infrared heating, earning the house an EPC rating of B. Whatever picture you have in your head when someone says bungalow, it is probably not this one.

Check out this 4 bedroom detached bungalow for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom detached bungalow for sale in Pilgrims Way, Charing, TN27 for £1,300,000. Marketed by Sandersons, Covering Ashford

Rightmove.co.uk

Events this week

🛶 Wed 19 Aug - Hythe Venetian Fete // Decorated floating tableaux parade along the Royal Military Canal by daylight and again illuminated after dark. Hythe. Tickets £20.

🎸 Fri 21 Aug - Nile Rodgers & Chic // Disco pioneers play an outdoor show with The Brand New Heavies and James Emmanuel. Dreamland, Margate. Tickets £65.85.

🏳️‍🌈 Sat 22 Aug - Medway Pride // Parade, live entertainment, stalls and more in Kent's largest LGBT+ event. Rochester Castle Gardens. Tickets £10.

🎭 Sat 22 Aug - A Midsummer Night’s Dream // East London Shakespeare Festival stages an outdoor, family-friendly version of Shakespeare’s comedy. Oval Bandstand, Margate. Tickets £18.

Footnotes

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