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Commuters to face £1,400 fare rise on Javelins
Dick Murray, Transport Editor12.12.08
COMMUTERS on a new high-speed rail link into London could face fare increases of nearly £1,400 a year it emerged today as the train made its debut journey into the capital.
The 140mph Javelin train travelled from Ashford to StPancras but its inaugural run was marred by protests over sky-high fares.
The new link will slash journey times between Ashford and London by more than half - down from 83minutes to 37 minutes - but at huge cost to passengers.
A yearly season ticket could cost £5,358 - a £1,389 premium on other fares - from January 2010. A standard return would cost £67.55.
Brian Cooke, the former chairman of rail watchdog TravelWatch, warned that the Javelin service could turn into a "damp squib for commuters" because the fares are too high.
But transport minister Lord Adonis, who was on the Javelin's debut run, said: "These trains will transform the journeys of large numbers of rail passengers."
The operator, Southeastern -which is owned by transport giant Go-Via - said final fares for the service were not yet known.
Lord Adonis refused to be drawn on the cost to passengers after travelling on the train. He said it would be up to Southeastern to set a "commercial level which will attract customers to a premium service".
The high-speed line cost a "great deal of money and it is only fair that those who benefit from it pay for it". The minister said the new service would provide a "dramatic change" for many passengers across Kent.
"I have just taken 37 minutes this morning to travel from Ashford to St Pancras International - that is under half the time of the old journey between Ashford and London of 83minutes," he added.
Sharon Grant, chairwoman of TravelWatch, said she had "concerns" over the new fare levels, as would many people "particularly in the current economic climate". The train twice reached its maximum speed of 140mph on its London-bound journey today.
Darryl Evans, 42, a driver-manager who has frequently taken the controls during testing, described the train as "fantastic... incredibly smooth". He added: "It is as far away from the old bone-shakers as it is possible to get."
Charles Horton, Southeastern's managing director, said: "This is a huge step forward and gives thousands of our passengers a whole new range of choices about where they live, how they travel to work and how they link up with rail connections to other parts of the country and the Continent."
Fast forward: the 140mph Javelin train made its inaugural run today from Ashford to St Pancras. It will cut journey times from 83 minutes to 37 from next December.
Reader views (12)
68pounds for standard return? are they crazy? who the hell is going to pay that, its the same price as a taxi!
- Blum, HYTHE
Might be easier and cheaper to DRIVE
- Trunk, US
Who wants to travel from St Pancras anyway unless you live north of the Thames?
- Angry Of Alton, Alton UK
The main failing of High Speed 1 is the failure to provide a station on the Essex side if the river where it runs alongside C2C in the Dagenham Dock- Rainham area.
The lack of ability in crossing the river downstream of London would have made the above a logical move, even if provision to stop Eurostars was not made.
I think premimum fares are charged in France for use of TGV services which this basically is.
What is really needed is a link from Stratford to the East Coast main line to allow these and eurostar services to be extended to the north. This would be much cheaper than the tory new line which is never likely to be built.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
selfish, selfish, selfish. Your area is served by high speed... you are clearly worrying about things that don't concern you. You will have a reduced journey time...
- Jeremy, london
This makes sense for routes where most of the journey is on the high-speed line: from places like Ashford and Dover there will be journey time savings. But for us in Medway I really can't see the point. The trains will run at normal speeds up to Ebbsfleet, so the overall time won't be much different to the present routes into Cannon St and Victoria, and most importantly the trains will go to St. Pancras, much further from where most Medway commuters actually work!
- Roy, Gillingham
Guess this train set has it's own track then ?
The signalling and other trains limit the time taken on any rail journey far more than the rolling stock.
I've made an awful lot of mainline express journeys which have been ruined by track, breakdowns and signalling problems
- Cap, London
Whilst the corporate memory at the Department of Transport might be equivalent to that of a gold fish your readers may recall that High Speed Commuter Trains from Kent together with services north and west of London were promised to MP's when they gave approval for the construction of the CTRL now known as High Speed One.
The M6 toll relief road, north of Birmingham, is an operational and financial failure because it does not offer sufficient time cost benefit to justify trucks diverting for the existing M6 thus the M6 remains jammed whilst the M6 toll is empty. The same will happen with the Kent Javelin services. As it is the intention to degrade the the existing service pattern from Kent to the existing London termini passengers on the classic lines will note increased overcrowding. There is some limited consolation in that will however be a direct competing service from Ashford to Saint Pancras International when Thameslink opens up their new Kent commuter routes next year.
At times such as this creating further barriers to employment in the south east by increasing economic social exclusion is plain daft.
- Bob Robinson, Parsons Green
The so-called high-speed train is a completely retarded idea. It doesn't take people where they need to go (Charing Cross or Victoria, not St Pancras!); and all other commuters have not only had their fares pushed up to pay for it, but services slashed in certain areas to accomodate it.
If the money was spent on sorting out the decrepit infrastructure of the Kent railways many Kent journey times could be cut by a quarter - and that would benefit many, many more people.
It's just another example of our braindead government's complete retardedness - wasting money on a showpiece of no value or need (unless you're rich and you need to go to Leicester)........
- Gb, Canterbury, Kent
Just dont use it - no profit no high paid directors salary
- Grim Reaper, Hell
It is reasonable to have a high fare, given the extra energy high-speed commuting will use.
High speeds should be for city-to-city journeys instead, where they successfully compete against planes.
- Jay, London
A new high speed service is opening from Milan to Bologna in two days' time. But as far as I know it will be nowhere near as expensive as the Javelin. Otherwise it would run empty.
- Mark Wright, Milan, Italy
