Full journey along High Speed 1 from London St Pancras International to Ashford International on board a Southeastern High Speed class 395 Javelin, Britain’s fastest domestic passenger train. This journey was filmed on August 2020 on the 0637 London St Pancras International to Dover priory services which stopped at both stations between London and Ashford.
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London St Pancras International (depart) 00:12
Stratford International 06:05
Ebbsfleet International 17:18
Ashford International 36:47
Services on Southeastern High Speed services (in the normal timetable) operate at a 4 trains per hour frequency off peak in/out of London St Pancras. 2 of these services go to Ashford with 1 continuing to Margate via Canterbury West and 1 to Dover Priory and back to St Pancras via Herne Bay. The other 2 services operate to Gravesend and on to Faversham where 1 train terminates with the other continuing to Ramsgate and then round the Kent coast back to St Pancras, this means there is a St Pancras to St Pancras service each hour going right round the Kent coast in each direction. Some extra trains run at peak times including some to Maidstone West as well as some peak time services not stopping at Stratford or Ebbsfleet high speed stations. There are extra services to all destinations in Kent which are cheaper to use along the classic routes in to London Bridge, Charing Cross and Victoria.
Southeastern High Speed are the only operator to operate domestic passenger services along HS1 with the only other passenger services along the route being the Eurostar services to Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and other European destinations. At the current time there are extremely limited Eurostar services running but they normally operate 1 or 2 trains an hour in each direction. All passenger services on HS1, including the class 395 Javelins operate at 140mph.
This route is entirely electrified using overhead electrification, the only route going south of London not to use 3rd rail. Southeastern High Speed services operate on AC power while on HS1 to Ashford International and then switch to DC power when they continue there journey on the classic lines to other destinations in Kent, while on AC power the class 395 have a top speed of 140mph but when on DC this is 100mph.
All Southeastern High Speed services use the same rolling stock which is the class 395 Javelins. These are all 6 carriage EMU trains which can operate in multiple to form 12 carriage trains. There are proposals to order extra High Speed rolling stock which may be in a longer fixed formation, this would be used to increase capacity on existing services as well as possible offering High Speed services to new destinations such as Hastings.
Journey sections:
London St Pancras International to Stratford International 00:00
Stratford International to Ebbsfleet International 07:24
Ebbsfleet international to Ashford International 18:29
#Southeastern
#HighSpeed
#Javelin