Orient Express visit to Kent's coastal jewel in the crown

On Saturday 19th May 2012 the first of four Orient Express excursions planned for this year to Deal was welcomed by a large crowd of Dealites and welcoming ambassadors including representatives from The Just Reproach, The Bohemian and Platform 1 Cafe.

The excursion was a sell out with two hundred passengers alighting at Deal station and exploring our great town. Once again BBC Radio Kent were live at Deal station and below you can listen to Nick Stevens from Platform 1 Cafe give an excellent interview championing Deal.

The introduction of peak highspeed train services to Deal has been a huge boost to the town, a catalyst for aspirations and investment. Kent County Council has committed to build a new youth centre, stagecoach have increased bus services, the Quarterdeck replacement has been agreed, Deal Business Park is nearing completion, fibre optic broadband is being rolled out and the seafront shared space project is gathering impetus. Furthermore we have seen some great new businesses start-up such as The Just Reproach and Platform 1 Cafe.

This is only the start as we still require a full highspeed service, more local jobs, better policing. I suspect we will always be lacking something because this town is a progressive town.

But the reason for all of the above improvements are down to one thing and that one thing is what defines Deal above all other towns, our community. Groups like Trains4Deal, Deal With It, North Deal Community Partnership and businesses like Platform 1 Deal are championing our town. I know there are many other groups and individuals who are working just as tirelessly.


The talk from afar is that the town is on the up! Long may it continue.

Highspeed DEAL can become a Hi-Tech hub

Recently Charlie Elphicke MP wrote a very good article about his ambition to make DEAL a high-speed town with better communication links and high tech jobs to compliment the highspeed rail service. Recently you may have noticed some new green boxes appearing on street corners! These are high-speed broadband cabinets and BT are currently rolling out FTTC (fibre optic broadband to the cabinet) which puts DEAL in the forefront of next gen technology.

Quite rightly Charlie wrote about the huge benefit that the Hadlow project would bring to DEAL and desperately needed well paid high tech jobs. The other day fellow DEAL and HS1 patron @horacebat tweeted me a great idea about having a remote office centre with video conference, fast broadband etc in DEAL where commuters could hot desk from. This then got me thinking... I bet like myself a lot of commuters from DEAL are working in tech centric jobs and would find a remote office centre useful so they can sometimes work locally. But why stop at that... local businesses and start-ups would also probably find this an invaluable service.

All of sudden you have got local start-ups and businesses networking with London IT professionals helping them prosper and grow and with a bit of luck a high tech hub emerges in DEAL, an East Kent satellite of London's Silicone Tech City. I am convinced we already have a wealth of IT innovators living in DEAL and that will only increase as our high performing academy school and the technology school in SANDWICH continue to thrive.

I would love to get some views on this so please comment if you have an opinion, idea or experience of hot desking.

December 2012 Southeastern timetable consultation begins

As far as I can tell the main change that would affect Deal and Sandwich is the proposed removal of the 05:56 service from Deal, this would be replaced by a 07:26 service which arrives at St Pancras at 08:49.

The 06:56 service would no longer make an attachment at Ashford but would additionally stop at Ebbsfleet. Journey times seem to have crept up from 82 minutes to 85 minutes which seems ridiculous as so much time is wasted hanging around Dover Priory. In my opinion HS services from Deal to St Pancras could easily be brought down to under 80 minutes.

The 18:10 St Pancras to Margate & Dover will run as a 12 car to Margate, cutting journey times from St Pancras to Canterbury to 55 minutes and will no longer serve Folkestone or Dover however the 18:18 St Pancras to Ebbsfleet is extended to Dover.

Once again there is no timetable provision for weekend HS services to Deal or Sandwich and the majority of these overall timetable changes seem geared to give Canterbury, Margate & Ramsgate quicker and more frequent services.

You can view the draft timetables using the following link and there is also a link on that page to submit your comments.

December 2012 Southeastern timetable consultation begins

New late night highspeed service to Deal

At last nights 4th Kent Rail Summit it was announced that from September there will be a new late night highspeed service to Deal. The extra extended late night highspeed Southeastern service to Deal, Sandwich and Ramsgate will leave London St Pancras International at 23.12.


The extended, late night highspeed service from London St Pancras to Deal, will be welcomed by those working late or enjoying a night out in London.


Bryan Sweetland, Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste, who chaired the 4th Kent Rail Summit, at County Hall, Maidstone, said:


"The launch of late night high speed services to East Kent is great news for the area, providing a further boost to business. It will significantly benefit tourism, building on the tremendous success of the Turner Centre and resulting increase in visitor numbers."

Demand secures permanent highspeed services to Deal & Sandwich

Kent County Council has confirmed it will continue subsidising Southeastern highspeed services to Deal & Sandwich for the next two years until the current franchise expires in 2014, then a new franchise should secure an all day service. The number of commuters using the service has soared and overall trips to and from Deal have increased 30% since September when the service was introduced.

KCC cabinet member for transport Cllr Bryan Sweetland said the number of season ticket holders using the high speed link in the East Kent towns had grown dramatically and this was expected to increase even more. He said “We’ve seen passenger numbers rise from a dozen to over 100 and that’s going to grow to a couple of hundred, the initial driver for us to subsidise the service was to support the regeneration in light of the Pfizer withdrawal. Confidence is growing and we took the decision to continue. I’ve been working with campaign group Trains4Deal and there are few things we need to tweak with the service.”

The subsidy will be reduced from last year due to the increase in season ticket holders using the daily fast link, which has three trains in the morning and two returning from St Pancras in the evening.

On Thursday 19th April BBC Radio Kent were live at "Platform 1" Deal station’s brand new café speaking about the importance of the service for Deal and how more highspeed trains are now required during the day. A clip from the show can be listened to below.

Deal train station signage

I have had communication from Southeastern regarding Deal train station signage which they maintain. They agree it is in a very poor state and have informed me that I should notice an improvement soon. 

Let's hope so as it does look a real eyesore!

Thanet fast-tracked over Dover District

On the 31st October 2011 the Government announced that East Kent (*Dover District, Thanet, Shepway and Canterbury) had been awarded a £40million Regional Growth Fund to drive new jobs and business growth in the wake of the Pfizer closure.

* You can now sign an e-petiton to change the name of Dover District.

The Task Force set up to mitigate Pfizer’s proposed exit from Sandwich met for the last time on 6th March 2012 and presented their last report.

The report states that the Regional Growth Fund has subsequently had £5million removed from it and now stands at £35million. The removed sum of £5million has been matched with a further £5million from Network Rail and will secure line speed enhancements from Ashford International to Ramsgate via Canterbury West to bring journey times to Thanet down to 60mins. This comes on top of the recent new signalling technology which has also been installed along this railway line.

This is good news for Thanet and will lay the foundations for a possible new Manston Parkway station.

However this will do nothing to improve transport links to Discovery Park (the Enterprise Zone which now encapsulates the Pfizer site). The Kent coast(Ashford) line between Folkestone and Ramsgate via Deal/Sandwich also requires urgent upgrading. This line still has semaphore signalling and line speed restrictions (the painfully slow speed restrictions between Folkestone and Dover Priory are legendary).

If we want East Kent Plc to become a reality then the Kent Coast line will also require upgrading and this needs to be done sooner rather than later. I am surprised this was not given priority considering improving rail services to Sandwich was identified as having a significant impact on the potential for Discovery Park in the 30 day report.