RAIL D-DAY
Will high-speed feature in bids?
The firms looking to run Kent’s train services for the next decade have now submitted their official bids to the government.
Abellio, Stagecoach and Govia were given until yesterday (Wednesday) to make their case to the Department for Transport, following a controversial tendering process, during which fears emerged of cuts to Maidstone’s rail services.
DfT documents issued to potential franchisees revealed the companies were offered the option of scrapping the popular 52-minute high speed trains from Maidstone West to London St Pancras, in favour of an alternative service to Abbey Wood, which calculations suggest would be significantly slower.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling insisted bidders could only take this up if they can prove it offers “significant benefits” over the existing service, and there would be no “degradation to today’s level of service”.
The argument is that County Town commuters would be offered variety by having routes to Abbey Wood - a major Crossrail station where passengers can easily access Canary Wharf and Bond Street - from Maidstone West, and quick routes to the city from Maidstone East through the much-trumpeted Thameslink service, planned to run to Cambridge.
Opposition councillors point out the Thameslink service has already been delayed several times, and fears were exacerbated when it emerged the DfT had asked bidders what they would do were the Thameslink service “delayed indefinitely”, leaving many critics wonder- ing whether it would ever materialise at all.
More than 1,600 passengers have signed a Kent Messenger petition urging the government to retain the high speed route, while council chiefs and business leaders have also written to the bidders, insisting losing the existing service would be hugely detrimental to the local economy.
The government will now assess the bids made by the potential franchisees before awarding the contract to the winner in December.
When contacted for a response to recent campaigning, the firms said the process was “commercially sensitive” and declined to comment.
Last week Maidstone councillors backed keeping the service in the County Town.
It carried a motion giving its support to continued highspeed connections.
The motion, suggested by Labour, was seconded by Liberal Democrat councillor James Willis and supported by the Conservatives.
Council leader Fran Wilson said: “The business community have taken this up in very strenuous terms, and it is one of those occasions where everyone is on the same page working together to see that we retain and improve these services to Maidstone.
“MPs are already doing it, the business community is already doing it, every single political party is already doing it, and so I’m very happy to support this.
“I just want everybody to know just how hard the entire community of Maidstone is working on this and we do need to have to keep the pressure up, but lets not think that we’re not doing all that we can, because we are.”
Backed by all sides of the council, the motion went on to call for a high speed service to run from Maidstone to London during the day.
Cllr James Willis called for the motion to put pressure on Thameslink to be delivered this year.
In November, the opening date of the cross-London service to Cambridge was put back to December 2019.
Once running, trains would also stop at West Malling, Borough Green, Wrotham and Otford and would travel to stations including London Bridge, Blackfriars and St Pancras.
To sign our petition, visit tinyurl.com/KMhighspeed