Latest news with #LondonStPancrasInternational
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Yahoo
The Southeastern trains cancelled or replaced by buses this Easter weekend
Several Southeastern trains will be cancelled, diverted, or replaced by buses this Easter weekend. The changes are due to engineering work or seasonal changes. These will affect trains from Good Friday to Easter Monday (April 17 to April 21). We have outlined and simplified the details so you can plan your journey this Easter weekend. Good Friday to Easter Monday (April 18 to April 21): Engineering work is taking place between Canterbury West and Minster, closing all lines. Trains between London Charing Cross and Ramsgate via Ashford International will only run between London Charing Cross and Canterbury West. Trains between London St Pancras International and Margate via Canterbury West will only run between London St Pancras International and Canterbury West. Trains between London St Pancras International and Ramsgate via Dover Priory are not affected and will stop additionally at Thanet Parkway. On Sunday, these trains will be extended to run to and from Margate, calling additionally at Broadstairs. Good Friday and Easter Saturday (April 18 and April 19): Engineering work is taking place between Grove Park and Bromley North, closing all lines. As a result, replacement buses will run between Grove Park and Bromley North, calling at Sundridge Park. Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (April 20 and April 21): Engineering work is taking place at Lewisham, closing all lines. On Sunday, trains between London Victoria and Dartford will not run. Services between London Cannon Street and Slade Green via Bexleyheath will be diverted to run via Sidcup and will not stop at Lewisham. On Monday, trains between London Victoria and Gravesend, and between London Charing Cross and Gravesend via Bexleyheath will not run. Services between London Cannon Street and Slade Green via Bexleyheath will be diverted to run via Sidcup and will not stop at Lewisham Also on Monday, trains between London Cannon Street and Dartford via Lewisham and Woolwich Arsenal will be diverted between London Bridge and Charlton to run via Greenwich. Trains between London Charing Cross and Hayes will not stop at Lewisham. Trains between London Charing Cross and Dartford via Sidcup will not stop at Lewisham. Trains between London Charing Cross and Sevenoaks will not call at Lewisham. Replacement buses will run between New Cross and Dartford via Bexleyheath calling at all stations.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Yahoo
Southeastern trains cancelled in the lead up to Easter
Several Southeastern trains will be cancelled this week as we head into the Easter weekend due to engineering work. The work will affect trains from Monday to Friday (April 14 to April 18). We've simplified the changes below so you can plan your journeys with ease. Monday to Wednesday (April 14 to April 16): The 11.39pm London Cannon Street to Dover Priory (Monday), the 11.39pm London Cannon Street to Canterbury West (Tuesday), and the 11.34pm London Charing Cross to Canterbury West and Dover Priory (Wednesday) services will be diverted between London Bridge and Ashford International, calling additionally at Maidstone East. Replacement buses will run between Tonbridge and Headcorn, calling at all stations, and between Headcorn and Ashford International, calling at Pluckley. Passengers travelling to Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, or connecting to the replacement bus at Tonbridge, please use alternative trains between London, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge. Tuesday and Wednesday (April 15 and April 16): The 12.26am London Cannon Street to Dartford via Greenwich service will be diverted to run via Bexleyheath. A replacement bus will run between London Bridge and Dartford via Greenwich. Wednesday and Thursday (April 16 and April 17): The 10.34pm London Charing Cross to Ramsgate via Canterbury West service will be replaced by an accessible bus between Minster and Ramsgate, calling at all stations. The 11.07pm London St Pancras International to Ramsgate via Dover Priory service will be replaced by bus between Dover Priory and Ramsgate, calling at all stations except Thanet Parkway. The 11.40pm London St Pancras International to Margate via Canterbury West service will be replaced by a bus between Minster and Margate, calling at all stations except Dumpton Park. Thursday only (April 17): The 11.40pm London St Pancras International to Margate via Canterbury West service will again be replaced by a bus between Minster and Margate, calling at all stations except Dumpton Park. Thursday and Friday (April 17 and April 18): The 12.22am London Charing Cross to Dartford via Woolwich Arsenal service will be diverted to run via Bexleyheath. A replacement bus will run between Lewisham and Dartford via Woolwich Arsenal.
The Independent
10-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Lower prices and trains to Milan: London St Pancras boss reveals plans to treble international passengers
Turning the arrivals area into a departure zone and using smarter security kit: that is how the man in charge of London St Pancras International intends to treble passenger numbers to continental Europe. It has already been a busy week for proponents of more international trains between the UK and Europe. On Tuesday Italian State Railways announced plans to launch trains from London St Pancras International to Paris, in competition with Eurostar, 'by 2029'; two other firms, including Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, say they want to enter the market. On Wednesday London St Pancras Highspeed (LSPH), which owns the UK's only current international rail station as well as the fast line to the Channel Tunnel, published a study saying demand for international rail travel is set to triple by 2040. And on Thursday, Robert Sinclair, chief executive of LSPH, has revealed to The Independent 's daily travel podcast his hopes for the future. 'Over the next 15 years, there is the potential for the market in terms of passenger numbers to triple from 11 million passengers now to 35 million passengers in 2040. 'Now, that's driven by a number of factors, so that includes the background, demand, economic growth, population growth, and so forth. But the key thing is that the forecasts demonstrate that there's a real prospect of modal shift. So more and more people want to catch the train. It is more convenient – city centre to city centre connections.' The scale of those ambitions, though, is tempered with the constraint of a station that was never designed for the intensive passport checks negotiated by the UK after Brexit, and the international departure area can strain to handle current Eurostar trains. 'If you just focus on the existing departure lounge area – or the international zone, as we call it – it is quite constrained,' Mr Sinclair said. 'It's busy, certainly at peak times.' When the much-delayed EU entry-exit system begins to be rolled out, crowding is likely to increase – with fingerprints and facial biometrics collected from passengers. Yet Mr Sinclair believes the Grade One-listed station can be reconfigured to handle three times as many passengers. 'There's another area which you can't see. It's the arrivals area and it's sitting just opposite on the ground floor of the station, and it's virtually empty.' At present all Eurostar passengers are pre-cleared for their destination, with UK and French border checks carried out at the departure station rather than on arrival. Yet the arrivals process at either end of the London-Paris Eurostar route is markedly different. Passengers at Paris Gare du Nord simply walk out on to the main concourse. But at St Pancras, arrivals are routed through something of a labyrinth: descending one floor using travelators or lifts to enter a large and cavernous hall before emerging into the middle of the station. 'With a little bit of clever redesigning, a little bit of utilisation of the existing space that is already there, a little bit of using some of the techniques that we did in aviation, we can create the space available to develop a significantly enlarged processing area for security, for the border checks, for the entry checks into France, the exit checks also out of the UK,' said the LSPH boss. 'With changing the nature of the security equipment that we use, we can significantly increase the throughput of passengers – and that's the key constraint that we have at the moment. 'We're not constrained for platforms and we're not constrained on the high speed line. So it's passenger throughput that we need to do, but we're confident we can do that. 'We have 50 per cent spare capacity on the high-speed line between here and Folkestone. And the Channel Tunnel has similar capacity.' The rail equivalent of an aviation 'slots' are known as a 'path' – permission to run a train on a stretch of track at a particular time. Most of the paths to and from London St Pancras International are used by Southeastern, which runs a network of trains serving Kent. "Currently, there are four paths an hour available for [international] passenger services and Eurostar use two an hour,' Mr Sinclair said. "So as you can see, there is the capacity to double the level of services, and we're looking at potential for a fifth path as well.' Eurostar, which has had the international rail market to itself for three decades, has its own expansion plans. A Eurostar spokesperson said: 'Emerging competition in the international high-speed rail sector is another example of positive signals indicating growing demand for rail in Europe. Growing cross-Channel rail is a race which Eurostar is firmly in, and we welcome competition. 'We're confident in our leadership in this sector and excited about the future. That's why we're investing in a new fleet of 50 trains, upgrading our stations, and working with partners to improve capacity and connectivity. Our ambition is to grow the market together — giving more people the opportunity to choose rail and enjoy world-class service." But Eurostar has sharply reduced the number of stations it serves, blaming post-Brexit red tape. Links to Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, the French Alps and Disneyland Paris have been scrapped, and the Eurostar stations at Ebbsfleet and Ashford in Kent, as well as Calais in France, have been mothballed. The St Pancras CEO says: 'I do think there's a significant opportunity to expand the destinations beyond just Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. The other countries and cities that have been identified: certainly Germany, so Cologne, possibly Dusseldorf, Frankfurt. 'Switzerland is within range as well – so Geneva, Basel, Zurich. And there's, of course, additional destinations in France: the likes of Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc. Possibly even Milan as well.' Unlike airlines, though, which can launch routes at short notice, the pace of high-speed rail expansion is glacial. 'Sadly, it's not going to happen overnight,' says Mr Sinclair. 'The key there is the timeframe to actually order trains and to have trains manufactured – you can't buy them off the shelf. So in terms of timeframe, we are looking at probably 2029 or 2030. 'Italian State Railways in their announcement this week, indicated 2029 or even by 2029. So hopefully, three, possibly four years away, that sort of timeframe.' At present Eurostar extracts fares commensurate with its rail monopoly between London and Paris. Booking a day ahead for Friday, the lowest fare is £235 – twice as much as the cheapest flight between the capital. Mr Sinclair says: 'We've certainly seen evidence – clear evidence – on the Continent that with competition comes lower fares and lower ticket prices, in the order of around 30 per cent less than current prices.' "Therein lies, I think, also the opportunity to open up a very significant market which exists because we do know that people are prepared to travel if there is a lower price point and that can open up a much larger market.' Mr Sinclair also explained the change of name from HS1 to London St Pancras Highspeed: 'We really want to be a lot more proactive in the role that we take and also using our voice to actually get behind the growth of high-speed rail and to support our operators. And we just couldn't do that with HS1: it wasn't known, it didn't have any consumer recognition, and it also got confused with HS2.' London St Pancras Highspeed is a trading name of the company HS1 Ltd, itself is a subsidiary of Helix Acquisitions Ltd, which owns the franchise to run the line and stations until 2040.
Sky News
29-03-2025
- Sky News
Three people dead after fire at station house in Northamptonshire village
Three people have died after a fire at a historic building in a Northamptonshire village. Police, fire and ambulance services were called at around 10.30pm on Friday to reports of a large blaze at a former station house in Beswick Close in Rushton, near Kettering. Three people were later confirmed to have died, Northamptonshire Police said. No further details on the identity of the victims have been given. Three police officers required hospital assessment because of smoke inhalation, the force added. The cause of the fire is now under investigation by police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service. Photographs show a large hole burned through the roof of the building - a 19th-century former station master's house at the now-closed Glendon and Rushton railway station. It is a Grade II-listed building, according to the Historic England website, and is now believed to be a residential property. Train services between London St Pancras International and Corby, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield were disrupted, along with services between Kettering and Nottingham after the fire, which was near a railway track. The disruption was due to damage caused to a railway line, according to the National Rail website.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Southeastern train cancelled in Greenwich, Bexley, Bromley, and Lewisham this weekend
Some Southeastern trains will be cancelled, diverted or replaced by buses this weekend due to planned engineering work. The work will affect trains on Saturday and Sunday (March 22 and March 23). We have compiled all of the details on these works so that you can plan your journey this week. Saturday (March 22): After 11pm, replacement buses will run between Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, running via Maidstone East. Alternative train services will run between London St Pancras International and Ramsgate via Dover Priory, and between Ashford International and Margate via Canterbury West. Trains between London St Pancras International and Ramsgate or Margate via Ashford International will be diverted to run via Faversham. An additional train service will run: The 11.22pm train from Ashford International to London Charing Cross, calling at London Bridge and London Waterloo East. A further additional train service will run on Saturday night (Sunday morning): The 12.45am train from London Charing Cross to Ashford International service, calling at London Waterloo East and London Bridge. Sunday (March 23): Engineering work is taking place between Bickley and Rochester, closing various lines. Replacement buses will run between: Bromley South and Meopham, calling at all stations except Bickley Bromley South and Borough Green & Wrotham, calling at St Mary Cray, Swanley, and Otford Meopham and Strood Meopham and Sole Street (minibus - see note below) Engineering work is taking place between London Cannon Street and London Bridge / Greenwich, closing some lines. London Cannon Street, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill, Westcombe Park, New Cross, and St Johns stations will be closed for the duration. No trains will run to and from these stations. Replacement buses will run between Lewisham and Charlton via New Cross and Greenwich. Trains between London Cannon Street and Slade Green via Greenwich, and between London Cannon Street and Slade Green via Bexleyheath will not run. Additional trains will run between London Charing Cross and Dartford via Lewisham and Woolwich Arsenal. Trains between London Victoria and Dartford via Bexleyheath are not affected and will run normally. However, as these will be the only trains on the Bexleyheath line, services will run every 30 minutes on this route.
