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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

4 October 2007

Last year Dover heard the news it had been waiting for. After years of campaigning, countless meetings with Ministers and some very intensive lobbying, the Government announced that the proposed domestic High Speed Trains would - after all - run from London St Pancras to Dover Priory.

Last month the first of the new Japanese-built Bullet Trains arrived in Southampton and this week the unit has been going through its preliminary testing program out of the new Hitachi Depot in Ashford.

On Tuesday the Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly came to Kent to welcome the new train and to officially open the new Hitachi Depot and I was pleased to join her along with two other Kent MP’s, my neighbour, Dr Steve Ladyman from Thanet South and Paul Clark who represents Gillingham.

I have visited the mock-up of the High Speed train more than once but on Tuesday we had the pleasure of seeing the real thing. The powerful engine and the very modern looking carriages which will soon be carrying us though Kent at 140 mph was running on it’s own tracks and it was all very impressive.

Each unit has six carriages and by December 2009 these new 395 trains will be whisking us from Dover to the heart of London in a little over an hour. The first train set, the 350 001, has been delivered on time and on budget and there are another 28 sets to come. They are being assembled in Hitachi’s construction plant in Kasado but most of the high voltage components have been designed, developed and distributed by British companies.

As well as slashing journey times across Kent, the High Speed domestic network will be extended to meet the demands of the Olympic Games and this new Javelin Line Service will carry passengers from St Pancras to the Olympic site in Stratford in just seven minutes.

But there’s much more to the high speed train project than the reduction of individual journey times. Linking up Dover to the Capital City with a state-of-the-art high speed bullet train service will give a massive boost to our regeneration plans which are now in hand. In fact there’s evidence that the decision itself has already raised confidence and encouraged new inward investment.

At the ceremony in Ashford, the Secretary of State told us that we were witnessing a major milestone in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Programme and that the new trains would be the fastest domestic rail services anywhere in the United Kingdom.

She said: “This is all part of the Government’s £5.8 billion investment in the new High Speed Line, which will revolutionise journey times – this is symbolic of the recovery and regeneration of Britain’s railway – backed by sustained funding from both Government and the private centre”

And as I was leaving Ashford I heard that Gordon Brown had brokered a deal which would allow the Cross Rail Scheme to proceed – it had been a good train day !