00:00The glistening towers of Canary Wharf are a far cry from the rolling hills of the South
00:06East, but for a handful of Labour MPs, coming here today is all about bringing international
00:14rail back to Kent. By the end of October the rail regulator will allocate space at Eurostar's
00:22Temple Mills Depot, which currently services and stores trains to the continent.
00:30And today local politicians gathered outside the office of Rail and Road to hand over a co-signed
00:37letter in hopes of allowing other operators to use the site.
00:43So this is not going to be a quick fix. This is going to take time. So I would expect the
00:48ORR to make a decision next month to another operator to operate in this sector who is
00:56willing to stop in Ashford. That's the priority.
01:00Since the pandemic, Eurostar services have not stopped at Ebsfleet or Ashford International,
01:08with a report from the Good Growth Foundation highlighting that the whole South East could
01:14be losing out on hundreds of millions of pounds every single year. And that's not just Kent.
01:22It means more jobs. It means more visitors to our area. And it means more opportunities
01:27for people growing up in Hastings and Rye. We really miss the services that we used to have
01:32at Ashford and we want to bring them back.
01:34Despite the regulator previously stating there might be some additional capacity at the depot, Eurostar
01:42have warned a serious investment being needed to create more room and make such ventures sustainable.
01:51But with a decision expected any day now, Eurostar's time as the sole continental train operator
01:58here in the UK could soon be at an end.
02:03Olly Leader in Canary Wharf
