Tonight Wednesday 27 April 2011 at Kent County Council's 3rd Rail Summit it was announced that from October, Deal and Sandwich will gain inclusion into the Southeastern highspeed network.
Three morning services will stop at Deal at 05.56, 06.22 and 06.52 with three services stopping in the evening departing from St Pancras at 17.40, 18.40 and at one later time to be announced nearer to the launch.
This is fantastic news for Deal and long overdue, the campaign to get all day highspeed services and improved mainline services for Deal must continue.
The immediate challenge now will be to make sure Deal is ready and able to maximise the benefit to the local economy that highspeed services can deliver.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Conservative cllr Julie Rook for making sure that Deal had a voice in the KCC Rail Action Plan. Over the last few months I have given Deal & Dover MP Charlie Elphicke a hard time which I am unapologetic but as I wrote in a previous post this was a key issue for his constituents and it appears he has delivered.
Hooray!
ReplyDeleteLet's get this right from the start - work to deliver access to Deal & Sandwich on foot by cycle and by bus (and consolidated taxi trips - as per Milton Keynes), so that there is no surge of road congestion and demand for car parking. It has been proven for Surbiton and other locations, build on that.
ReplyDeletehi, the 17.40 and 18.40 from St Pancras stop at Stratford, Ashford, then split to go to Dover and Margate. Which one of those services is getting the chop to make way?
ReplyDeleteTo Anon,
ReplyDeleteNo services are getting the chop, the 17.40 & 18.40 currently run from Dover Priory after terminating empty through Deal & Sandwich back to Ramsgate. These trains will now stop at Deal & Sandwich. Everyone wins!