As the dust settles on the decision to shelve a sizeable chunk of HS2, Kent continues to be the only place in the country with access to a high-speed rail service. The question is, does it deliver on all the promises made?

It was 30 years ago the decision was taken on the route of High Speed One (HS1) – the project formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

It cut a swathe through the county unlike anything before or since. Homes were subject to compulsory purchases, pubs demolished, woodland scythed down and town’s altered forever.

Looking back, it was not without its opposition. Protestors taking to the streets of their villages and towns were commonplace. Towns like Ashford had to stomach significant short-term pain (its cinema was demolished, its market forced out) for promised long term gain.

Yet the high-speed track was essential to one of the nation’s biggest transport projects – the Channel Tunnel itself.

As the first permanent link to mainland Europe, it was essential England’s stretch of the rail track which would whisk travellers from London to Paris was up to speed with our continental cousins. National pride was at stake.

Thus the line was ear-marked to run from the Eurotunnel terminal at Cheriton, up through Ashford, track alongside the M20 then up across the Medway, calling in at Ebbsfleet, and then a tunnel under the Thames en route to St Pancras.

It cost an eye-watering £6.84 billion. That’s the equivalent of £51m per mile.

Mind you, the full HS2 was expected to tip the scale at well in excess of £100billion – before links to Leeds and, last week, Manchester, were shelved.

HS1, however, was ultimately going to be more than just a track upon which continental rail services would run. It was about to forever transform domestic rail services.

Its specially designed trains could hit speeds of in excess of 185mph. It brought London dramatically closer.

We can get a bit blasé today about the time it takes to reach the capital. But for Ashford, it slashed 47 minutes off the journey time – getting users into St Pancras in just 38 minutes. For Ramsgate, the time was slashed by 49 minutes bringing it to less than one hour and 20 minutes. Board a train at Ebbsfleet International, and you’re in Camden (the borough in which St Pancras is sited) in less than 20 minutes. That, by the way, is quicker than the Tube journey takes from Earls Court to the terminal.

It effectively means those working in London have been able to relocate – taking advantage of considerably cheaper property prices in the county. With the influx of city workers, it has then seen local Kent economies buoyed.

Graham Galpin saw the impact HS1 had on the county first-hand. As a former chair of the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, a former cabinet member on Ashford Borough Council and now an expert on the government-commissioned High Street Task Force, he is in little doubt of its influence.

He explains: “When you look at the expansion of Ashford and the recovery of the likes of Folkestone, Dover and Margate, despite Brexit, despite Covid, it’s clear something's changed in the county. The roads haven't improved but the railway has.

“HS1 has made a titanic change to the county.”

Yet he warns against direct comparisons to HS2.

“They are apples and oranges,” he reflects. “The rationale for HS1 was clear; It's got to be there to take the high-speed trains to Europe. And we benefited as a county from that and we benefitted with our improved travel to London.

“But I go Manchester fairly frequently and it's not an arduous journey. OK, it’s not 160 miles an hour or anything like that, but you get there promptly and it's not an uncomfortable journey.

“So I think you have to ask why do we want to make it any faster when the reasons for going from London to Manchester are catered for at the moment?”

Those in the North will, as a counter-argument, point to the need of HS2’s original proposal – to link up the major cities of Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham with fast, reliable services. Not something which is a given currently.

Mr Galpin believes it means, for the next few years at least, Kent can continue to feel the unique benefits of high-speed rail.

He explains: “When HS2 was in the early days, I used to get asked by various other councils if they could come down and talk to me about HS1 and the benefits that we had and whether or not they should support it.

“I’d tell them they didn’t have to. In fact, we’d prefer it you didn't as then we keep all that wonderful advantage.”

In a report in 2019, Dyan Perry, chief executive of HS1 Ltd, outlined the economic benefits it had brought to the county.

She said: “HS1 has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. For the economy, the route produces a staggering £427m of economic benefits every year. Cumulatively since opening this amounts to £4.5bn.

“In part this has been achieved from productivity gains thanks to faster journeys, but also through new jobs created by the businesses that have set themselves up on the route because of the diverse and skilled international workforce now at their fingertips.

“For the wider society and the communities we serve, HS1 has brought affordable housing within the reach of tens of thousands of young couples and families. Indeed, it has made the aspiration of owning a home with a garden a reality for many. For our environment, the shorter journey times permitted by HS1 has made near-Europe short-haul flights even less attractive. This has driven a switch from one of the most environmentally harmful forms of transport to one of the most environmentally friendly.”

Does that still hold true today though?

Since the pandemic arrived in early 2020, neither Ashford or Ebbsfleet has seen a Eurostar service stop to take on passengers. It is a sizeable blow to both multi-million pound sites and one which Dartford council leader Jeremy Kite described as “a national disgrace” earlier this year.

Eurostar insists the enormous loans it needed to take out to survive an 18-month lockdown-caused decimation of its services means it cannot afford to reinstate Kent services. Yet.

“I remain confident it will return, hopefully, in a couple of years,” says Graham Galpin. “I hope once the economy in Europe settles down again there will be a demand and the likes of Ashford and Ebbsfleet will return to the timetables.”

For now, though, the HS1 benefits are through its domestic route. We may have now take it for granted, but never lose sight of the rejuvenating impact it has had – and continues to have – on the county.