On May 25, 6:20*pm, Arthur Figgis wrote:

On 25/05/2010 15:54, Paul Scott wrote:

The BBC report the fact that:

"A £210m station which was due to help bring in people from abroad to the
London 2012 Olympic Games may never have an international service..."

Correct me if I've got this wrong, but isn't the bit about 'bringing people
to the games' bolloc#s anyway?

Not if you read it somewhat pedantically as (station due to help bring
in people (some from abroad)) will (never have an international
service). While Eurostar wasn't going to stop at Stratford during the
games, the station is certainly intended to bring in spectators, and
some of these will be from abroad - they will just change at St Pancras
or Ebbsfleet to reach Stratford. And hurrah for a correct use of Javelin.

OK - so the real story here is possibly 'international station will
never get international trains' - in which case I suggest that's not a
new story, as Eurostar CEO Richard Brown was saying that quite some
time ago, and we've discussed it on here many times. Of course one
should never say never - and I'd say that not considering to run any
services until after the Games in 2012, before which the area around
the station will remain a building site, is a sensible option.

I'd think there would be a market of some sort for Eurostar services
from Stratford, but whether E* think that'd be worthwhile given the
extra costs it would entail effectively running another international
terminal (and all that entails) only a few miles from St Pancras is
the critical question. Perhaps in years to come as new housing comes
on stream in the Olympic Park site then things might be different
(much of the new housing is to come later - it's only really the
athletes village that'll be converted for housing and available
shortly after the Games are finished.)


As for the Olympics, I thought the argument was that absolutely everyone
in the country outside London wanted them, it was just tight-fisted
killjoy London taxpayers who didn't, and that was why were lumbered with
them...

So that's the Figgis take on it... I see!

Being boring, my (slightly more serious) take is that many Londoners
were keen on the idea of it during the bidding phase, but as time has
past a significant number have gone somewhat colder on it all.


Anyway, "Other international train operators are in talks to use
Stratford" is more interesting.

Possibly translates as 'HS1 Ltd is keen to talk up the idea of
possible competing services in the run up to it being flogged by the
government who want to secure the best price they can get - ' - or is
that too cynical? As to the factual basis of it, it could be nothing
more than there being an open line of communication between HS1 Ltd
and say DB - the general impression might well suit Mr Grube at DB as
well, even if nothing much is really happening on that front at the
moment.