Shepway Chairman's Blog

Cllr Emily Sanger, Cllr Robert Bliss, Cllr Carole Waters, Stephen Gasche, Cllr Susan Carey, Cllr Anthony Dunning

The preview services have been running from Folkestone since September and the full service began on Sunday 13 December but today, Monday 14 December, is the official launch of the High-Speed domestic rail services in Kent.

There’s a large group of wellwishers at Folkestone Central to see us off and, I hear later, another group at Folkestone West.  From Shepway District Council there’s the Leader, Robert Bliss, cabinet member for culture Carole Waters, and councillors Emily Sanger and Anthony Dunning.  We are also joined by Stephen Gasche who is now at Kent County Council but was once an officer at Shepway and very involved in the Rail for Folkestone campaign.

Cllr Susan Carey, chairman of Shepway District Council at St Pancras on 14 December 2009

We are joined by Shepway District Council officers Sarah Smith and Owain East who are setting up a stand at St Pancras station to promote Folkestone and the whole Shepway area.  This supplements the publicity we already have at St Pancras in two prominent poster sites. 

One of the posters at St Pancras

The journey to London is just 58 minutes and very smooth.  The train is nearly full and the reporters travelling with us from the Kentish Express say that the passengers they have interviewed have been really positive about the new service. 

Another of the Folkestone advertisements

St Pancras is a beautiful station with a stunning mix of old and new.  The cathedral like Victorian station shed houses a gleaming white, modern station with smart shops, a champagne bar (the longest in Europe) and trains to the North, to France and Belgium and now Kent.  Many of the people we talk to today are astonished to find there are direct train services to Kent from St Pancras and even more surprised at the property prices of an area that is now less than an hour away from London.

Chris Kirkham of Discover Folkestone, Hythe & Romney Marsh joins us on the stand with some of his staff to give out leaflets about the delights of Folkestone and to talk with the many people who stop to look at the stand.  I meet a handful of people who tell me they are already househunting in Shepway as a result of the new train services and many more who say they want to visit.

Dame Kelly Holmes at the launch of High-Speed rail services

At 10 am I go across the road for the official speeches (six of them and a video address from Prime Minister, Gordon Brown).  Appropriately for a fast train, train number 001 has been named after Dame Kelly Holmes who was the fastest woman athlete in the 800m and 1500m at the 2004 Olympic Games.  Dame Kelly is from Kent and in her speech she made mention of this as well as saying how pleased she was that the new trains would serve Folkestone, Dover and Canterbury.  Sadly both my photos with Dame Kelly are too blurred to use (and she wasn’t running) but it was lovely to meet her.

Model of the development area around St Pancras station

Two displays caught my eye at the launch.  One was a large model railway with trains in the Southeastern colours and the other a model showing how the 67 acres around St Pancras station was being developed.  Offices, shops and homes are planned and St Pancras will undoubtedly develop as a business centre for London.

Back at the stand the rest of the Shepway team were still giving out leaflets and did so until mid afternoon when supplies ran out.  By this time we were all completely chilled as although the shops and restaurants are all well heated, the concourse is at least as cold as those outdoors. 

The team at the end of our day at St Pancras

Southeastern’s new High-Speed Rail services had a good launch and I congratulate those involved in making it happen.  Shepway has high hopes of what the trains can do for our district and we will continue to work to make these happen as well.

The view from the train en route from St Pancras to Folkestone