Rail passengers face quarter mile trek

Passengers may have to walk nearly a quarter of a mile to connections with mainline train services when the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link opens in two years.

Plans for an airport-style travelator linking the new Eurostar international station at Stratford with the existing station are set to be ditched by rail chiefs.

Last month it was revealed that passengers would have to walk a third of a mile to connect with Eurostar services because the Government has delayed funding for the completion of a "ghost station" at St Pancras.

Now a similar problem has arisen at Stratford as Union Railways, parent company of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), wants to scrap

plans for the ?20-25million 400-metre travelator on cost grounds.

It was to have helped transfer passengers between the two Stratford stations as well as commuters arriving to use domestic services to and from Kent. The Government, when granting permission for the construction of the London end of the high-speed link, inserted a condition that there must be a connecting travelator, or similar, between the two Stratford stations.

Newham council chiefs are now furious that Union Railways bosses have ignored the condition.

"It is a ridiculous situation," said one. "The new station is costing ?80million and many users will still be left to carry their bags and cases nearly a quarter of a mile."

Brian Cooke, chairman of the watchdog London Transport Users' Committee, said: "The committee is adamant that some mechanical means be provided to assist passengers. A travelator would be ideal.

"If Union Railways has a better idea then we will listen to it but we will strongly resist any move to drop the condition."

A confidential Newham council report, seen by the Evening Standard, states that Union Railways has "made clear" it does not wish to comply with the travelator condition "on the grounds that they do not have a budget for development of the link".

A council spokesman said: "With Transport for London we are looking at the options for an interchange between the two Stratford stations to identify the most appropriate solution. Union Railways have been asked to participate with these studies."

David Joy, planning director of London and Continental Railways, Eurostar holding company and responsible for corporate management of real estate for the link and stations, said: "We have never been keen on the travelator idea."

He said a report now awaited from London Underground into large-scale improvements at the existing Stratford station could include a travelator.