St. Pancras - high speed hub

The new St. Pancras - staircase fit for a ballroom

I was in London the other day, and instead of returning to Hastings had arranged to meet Paul in Rye.  This led to my discovery that little old Rye is now only an hour and a quarter away from London by train - as a result of the high speed connection from St. Pancras to Ashford International.

Café society near the Eurostar gates

My return journey was, as a result, a bit of a voyage of discovery. For starters, I  hadn't been to the new St. Pancras, which left me fairly gobsmacked.  Gone are those old days of draughty platforms and concourses that are wastelands dominated by vast boards with details of departures.  Now the trains are tucked away out of sight and the traveller is lured to shops and bars. (Since this is the departure point for the Eurostar service, it wasn't surprising that the café nearest to it should be called "Le Pain Quotidien", cleverly managing a Gallic whiff and a scriptural allusion at the same time.)

Once I had recovered from the gobsmacking, though, I got a bit lost: the thing is that the station now serves not only Eurostar but also trains to the Southeast and the East Midlands.  Finding the Ashford International train was sufficiently bewildering for me to have to ask someone in a fluorescent jacket (it wasn't clear whether they were staff or not but I thought the jacket was a bit of a giveaway) where to go.  Just as well I'd been warned by London friends to allow extra time.

The next surprise was the speed of the journey - stops at Stratford International, Ebbsfleet International and then suddenly lo and behold Ashford International (the international bit has got a bit devalued, I reckon, but it arguably adds a bit of glitz to the experience).  Until you get to Ebbsfleet International the scenery is pretty dire - a lot of concrete on either side of the tracks, broken by vistas of light industrial estates.  But suddenly, abracadabra, and you're in Ashford and ready to change over to the dinky two-carriage train that chugs along to Rye and then on to Brighton.

Rather less of the café society atmosphere near the Ashford service!

The vast infrastructural cost was all too apparent from the whole experience.  But at the same time, when the world is shrinking and we can jet off to distant lands in a few hours it seems only right to connect parts of the same country more efficiently.  This experience has rather altered my perspective on the disputed HS2 proposals.  London has become such an important economic centre of this country that it needs to be joined up to other parts - otherwise I sometimes feel that the disparity between the metropolis and the provinces is just going to get greater and greater.

There was another thing that struck me: in this hugely costly labyrinth the workers - i.e. the station staff, the barista who served me at Prêt à Manger and then, on the train, the ticket collector - were all well-trained, efficient and charming.  Everything I have read leads me to believe that they are all on low wages, and probably have to travel long distances to get to their workplace.  But you'd have thought that their sole purpose in life was to make me feel good.  No wonder tourists enjoy coming here. 

Antony Mair