On thursday 18th June the new commuter services ran a maiden voyage on High Speed 1 at 140mph (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) from St Pancras to Ashford International. The journey time is now only 30 minutes compared to the usual time of 70 minutes using conventional trains from other London terminii.

Actual commuter services will start at the end of June, with a limited service of 2 trains to Ebbsfleet an hour, and 3 to Ashford during the rush hour periods, but by the end of the year 29 new 12 carriage 349 seater Javelin trains will be in service linking London to Kent. Example journey times will be 59 minutes to Canterbury (currently 1hr 50 minutes), and Dover in 1hr 9 minutes (currently 1hr 56 minutes).

There is a catch though for commuters as the new trains into St Pancras will be more expensive to travel on, with an average 20% increase over current ticket prices, and in future peak travel tickets will rise by 3% above inflation.

Not everyone is happy with the new service as once the Javelins are in service some of the existing fleet of trains will be removed and placed on other routes to help ease overcrowding elsewhere, and many travellers fear that for those who dont want to travel on the new line getting to London will actually take longer.

Although its not all doom and gloom as it seems that the new link is proving to be good news for property prices in Kent, with many estate agents reporting more interest than ever.