Revealed: the cost of high-speed rail travel!
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by Jo Sword
Commuters will get a chance to try out the
UK's first high speed rail service from June 29 - five months
ahead of its official launch on December 13.
The 'preview' service will run between Ashford
International, Ebbsfeet International and St Pancras from Monday to
Friday.
As well as giving passengers a taste of what
is to come and offering rail bosses feedback, it will also give
Southeastern a chance to continue with testing, training and
ensuring the service will run smoothly when it is fully
introduced.
Southeastern says the highly anticipated
140mph service will offer passengers between Ashford International
and London a journey time of 37 minutes and from Ebbsfleet
International a time of just 17 minutes.
Charles Horton, Southeastern
managing director said: "This is an extremely exciting time for the
whole rail industry and we are pleased that we are able to provide
this preview service six months early."
But there is a price to pay for this speedy
service which the rail operator believes offers value for
money.
For example, with a single ticket it will cost
you £26.60 to get to London from Ashford International on High
Speed 1 compared with £22.20 if you use the mainline.
Existing Southeastern ticket holders will be
able to travel by paying a supplement and all first class ticket
holders can travel on the high speed line at no extra cost.
Click here to see the
timetable for the preview services
Commuters from Ebbsfleet International will
get more choice of when they can travel compared to Ashford’s
commuters using this 'preview' service. Southeastern are offering
up to four morning peak services to St Pancras International and
six back during the evening peak hours. There will also be
twice-hourly services operating during the day.
But if you want to try out High Speed 1 from
further afield, the company is only offering up peak time travel
six times a day to and from Ashford International.
Earlier this year Southeastern published its
draft High Speed 1 timetable, which will see an extra 200 trains
operating daily from December.
Monday, June 01 2009
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