"TP" wrote in message
...
"Matt Wheeler" wrote:

I can see one problem with this.... You suggest using the former
Eurostar paths to Ashford. Surely these paths will only be
"available"
up to where the current Waterloo - CTRL line meets the CTRL, as the
actual Eurostar to St Pancras will be using the paths on the CTRL.

I would be astonished if there were any shortage of paths along the
CTRL. In fact I am astonished that you even suggested there might
be!


OK, so maybe the paths will be there on the CTRL, but then some
capacity on the CTRL is going to be taken up by the slower domestic
services.

Anyway, from Waterloo, you can cross over to Waterloo East and catch
a
South Eastern service to Ashford, which, for the fast trains, are
just
over an hour..

True. But I am suggesting higher quality trains that make direct
timetabled connections at Ashford rather than using existing trains
that are timetabled with other purposes in mind.


Interesting idea, would you propose an extension on the order for the
CTRL Domestic services, or a completely new build of stock ? Either
case, since the domestic stock isn't expected until 2009, the stock
for your service won't be ready until then, or even later. What do you
do in the interim, especially given that the NoL eurostars may well
end up on the CTRL kent Domestic services. By the time your stock is
available, most passengers will have got used to either going to St
Pancras, or Ashford (or Ebbsfleet or Stratford), and therefore
wouldn't see the benefit of your proposed service.

Lets say they did keep Waterloo open for Eurostar services. How would
you split them between Waterloo and St Pancras ? Regardless of how you
split them, you will still end up with people in SWT region having to
transfer to St Pancras, as the train they need at the time they need
will run from St Pancras rather then Waterloo.

Looking at the current timetable on Eurostar's website....
1: Apart from the early morning, Brussells services are every 2 hours
(hourly early morning), even if this was moved to hourly all day, that
still means, at best, 1 train every 2 hours from each of Waterloo and
St Pancras. Is there even enough demand for an hourly brussells
service ? The current timetable would suggest not, in which case you
end up with a train every 4 hours from each of the two termini.

2: "other destinations", where do you run these from ? Its going to be
too confusing to have the disneyland train running from one station
one day/week and the other the following day/week. You could suggest a
train from each, but is there the passenger numbers to warrant doing
this ?

3: "Paris". There generally seems to be at least 1 train per hour,
sometimes two. Lets say you increase to two per hour, every hour, you
can then have 1 per hour from each. However, due to the extra time on
the current route over CTRL2, if they left London about 30 mins apart,
by the time they get to Ashford/The Tunnel, they could well be running
within a few minutes of each other, and therefore arrive in Paris
about the same time. To get even spaced arrivals at Paris you'd
probably have to have both trains leave London at the same time,
effectively turning a half hourly service into an hourly one.