St Pancras owner lays out plan to boost Channel passenger numbers

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The owner of London’s St Pancras station has laid out plans to more than double the passenger capacity of the UK’s only international train terminal, taking advantage of booming demand for high speed rail travel.

Robert Sinclair, chief executive of HS1, which owns the station and the high-speed rail track running to the Channel Tunnel, said a study had found space for international passenger numbers to increase from the current capacity of 1,800 an hour to nearly 5,000.

“There is an amazing opportunity for high speed rail connectivity throughout Europe, and we want to feed into that,” he told the Financial Times.

Several groups are exploring starting new services linking the UK and mainland Europe, while the incumbent Eurostar also has significant growth plans.

But St Pancras operates at close to capacity, and has emerged as one of the biggest obstacles to expanding the international rail market between the UK and continental Europe.

Passengers go through airport-style security, French passport control and UK government departure checks in the station before boarding international trains.

Eurostar was forced to run some trains a third empty after Brexit because queues caused by new passport checks threatened to overwhelm the limited space at St Pancras. Planned new EU biometric border checks threaten to further complicate the process.

Yet Sinclair said a study by consultants Active Thinking, commissioned by HS1, found that a huge rise in capacity was possible without rebuilding St Pancras.

He said that passenger numbers could grow to about 2,400 an hour in the next three to four years through changes including additional security lanes and staff.

In the longer-term, Sinclair said parts of St Pancras’s “international zone” would need to be redesigned for passenger numbers to approach 5,000 an hour.

This would include changing the layout of security and immigration, and expanding the departure lounge by 50 per cent. Many passengers would also wait on trains rather than in departure areas to free up space.

Still, Sinclair conceded the plan would need the French government to agree to providing more immigration officers, “which is not in our gift”.

Sinclair joined HS1 in March this year following six years at London’s City airport, which sells itself to business travellers as a seamless passenger experience including short waits to pass through the airport.

He said underpinning all of the changes would be “more of a focus on speed and throughput” at St Pancras.

“We want a ‘turn up and go’ arrangement. Not turn up two hours beforehand, get through security and wait in the departure lounge. This is a train station, not an airport,” he said.

HS1 charges train operators by the minute to run on its tracks, and along with Getlink, the operator of the Channel Tunnel, has long wanted to encourage more services between London and the continent.

Getlink earlier this year offered €50mn in support to encourage companies to open new cross-Channel rail services.

Sinclair said the new capacity at St Pancras could be used either by Eurostar, which has pledged to buy up to 50 new trains, or by a rival operator.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, a consortium backed by the largest shareholders in Mobico, formerly known as National Express, are among five companies to have explored launching a rival service to Eurostar.

“Our high speed line has got 50 per cent spare capacity. You couldn’t make it up. There’s a significant opportunity that is sitting there waiting underutilised,” Sinclair said.

HS1 plans to launch the Active Thinking study in the coming weeks, before commissioning a more detailed architectural design for the planned changes to St Pancras.