Appendix B

Presentation by Councillor Mike FitzGerald – Kent rail Community Partnership

Medway Valley Line

We accept that there is at present insufficient demand to justify 2 trains per hour (Option 7.3) between Maidstone West and Paddock Wood/Tonbridge during the off peak although we believe that current peak hour service levels are too low. However, we are also conscious that possible housing and industrial development of the old Syngenta site adjacent to Yalding Station would boost traffic to some degree. We also wonder what demand might be created for passengers to access HS1 services at Strood or even Maidstone West in future. We believe this option should be kept under review. (Please note that extension of services from Paddock Wood to Tonbridge in December will only apply off-peak).

We are disappointed that you have not fully investigated Option 8.4. We understand the view that a Strood to London Bridge service via Tonbridge and Redhill would be fragile, but we wonder what the demand for a through service to London Bridge from stations between Tonbridge and Redhill actually is? Passengers at Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Redhill have frequent trains to London on other routes. A through service from Strood to Redhill would provide improved connections to Gatwick from Kent and opportunities from Tonbridge and beyond to access HS1 services with fewer connections. Is there any evidence to say which market would be greater? There would be a further benefit in that such a service pattern would reduce platform occupancy at Tonbridge Station.

The Kent CRP strongly supports proposals to extend St Pancras – Ebbsfleet services to Maidstone West. As the County Town and main administrative Centre of Kent, Maidstone does not benefit from HS1 services currently being implemented and is also losing direct services on classic routes to London. Direct services to St Pancras would go a long way to correcting this anomaly. We do not agree that Aylesford should be the intermediate stop for any such services. Although there has certainly been a good deal of new housing in the area, there has been more in the New Hythe area and we would recommend that if HS1 services were to have an intermediate stop between Maidstone West and Strood it should be at Snodland. Snodland is already the busiest intermediate station between Maidstone and Strood and may benefit from additional car parking in the near future. By contrast, there is almost no car parking at Aylesford.

Journey Opportunities Para 7.3.15

(4^th bullet point). We wish to see improved connections from Kent to and from Gatwick (see above) and there is strong community support for this, but we also recognise that shift patterns of airport staff and flight schedules mean that in order to really compete with cars and taxis, rail services would need to operate almost 24 hours a day and we accept that this is not going to happen in the foreseeable future. Never-the-less, there is a need to develop routes and journey opportunities other than those radiating from London both for their own sake and also to relieve the pressure on the London Terminals and their approaches.