The rail regulator approved Virgin's cross-Channel deal on 13 August. Its own decision letter says the trains will call only at St Pancras, through to 2040.

The rail regulator has approved a deal letting Virgin Trains run up to 20 cross-Channel services a day from London. Its own decision letter says none of them will stop at Ashford.

The Office of Rail and Road pre-approved the framework track access agreement between HS1 Limited and VTE OPCO Limited, Virgin’s operating company, on 13 August 2026. It runs from 1 October 2030 to 31 December 2040. Paragraph 5 of the decision letter is a single sentence:

Services will only call at London St Pancras International on the HS1 network.

That is the whole of the Ashford question, settled for the life of the agreement unless somebody applies to change it (ORR decision letter, 14 August 2026).

Ashford Borough Council was one of eighteen bodies that responded to the consultation on the deal, alongside Kent County Council, Medway Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Dartford Borough Council, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation and Sojan Joseph MP.

What the regulator said to Kent

The ORR did not ignore the borough. It set out the objection and then explained why it could not act on it:

While we recognise the strong stakeholder interest for international services to be reinstated to Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International stations, ORR cannot insist that VTE provides specific services or enters a contract to do so.

The regulator added that HS1 and Virgin, or any other operator, “can apply for track access rights to serve Ebbsfleet International or Ashford International at any time”, and that it will “actively engage with any party wishing to provide international services to Kent”.

The Department for Transport raised the same point in its own consultation response, asking for reassurance that a later change of plan could still be fitted into the timetable. The answer it got, from HS1 and Virgin jointly, was that intermediate stations “are not contemplated as part of the FTAA because there is currently no firm plan in place to open the stations by 2030” (HS1 and Virgin consultation responses, 19 June 2026).

What Virgin would actually have to do to stop here

This is the part worth knowing, because it is more specific than “one day, maybe”.

HS1 spelled out in the same document exactly what is missing. The agreement as approved would not be enough on its own to permit a call at Ashford. Virgin would need:

  • a Station Access Agreement with HS1 for each station it wants to call at, listed under Schedule 3 of its agreement, which currently names only St Pancras International
  • firm rights for the extra calls under Schedule 5 of the agreement, which also currently names only St Pancras
  • a Track Access Contract with Network Rail, because the station itself is not on HS1
  • a Station Access Agreement with the station facility owner

HS1 says it understands Virgin does not currently intend to seek the last two.

There is one thing already in place, and it matters. HS1 confirmed that the agreement does include the HS1 sections of the Ashford chords under Schedule 2, the routes schedule. In plain terms, the track that would carry a Virgin train off the high speed line and into Ashford International is already written into the contract. As HS1 put it, “should Virgin in future decide to serve Ashford they would not need to add these sections to Schedule 2”.

That is a real, if narrow, piece of good news. The route is not shut out of the paperwork. The station calls, the station agreements and the Network Rail contract are.

The trains that are coming, and where they will not stop

Virgin Trains daily paths approved on HS1, 2030 to 2040 Bar chart of the daily paths in each direction approved for Virgin Trains on the HS1 network. London to Paris rises from 6 daily paths in October 2030, to 10 in April 2031, to 13 from October 2031 through to December 2040. London to Brussels is 4 daily paths from February 2031. London to Amsterdam is 3 daily paths from September 2031, held as contingent rather than firm rights. Virgin's approved daily paths on HS1: none of them stop in Kent Paths in each direction per day, as approved by the ORR on 13 August 2026. Agreement runs to 31 December 2040. London to Paris, from October 2030 London to Paris, from April 2031 London to Paris, from October 2031 London to Brussels, from February 2031 London to Amsterdam, from September 2031 6 10 13 4 3 contingent rights, not firm Source: ORR decision letter, 14 August 2026. Graphic by The Ashford Times

The approved services build up in stages:

  • London to Paris: 6 daily paths each way from October 2030, 10 from April 2031, then 13 from October 2031 to December 2040
  • London to Brussels: 4 daily paths each way from February 2031
  • London to Amsterdam: 3 daily paths each way from September 2031, and these are contingent rather than firm rights, meaning they are only fitted in if there is room after every firm right is dealt with. HS1 flagged possible limits on passenger capacity at St Pancras if total outward services from all operators pass 42 in a day.

Virgin still has to buy the trains, get access to the European networks and the Channel Tunnel, and obtain safety approvals from the ORR and EU authorities. Its own target for starting services is 2030. Virgin and HS1 had until 4 September 2026 to sign the agreement in the approved form (ORR, 17 August 2026).

The county council is asking you to fill in a survey

Kent County Council put out a call on 27 August for residents to complete a survey run by the campaign group Bring Back Euro Trains, on the argument that operators need evidence of demand before they will commit.

KCC says almost 14,000 people have already registered an interest. The survey asks where you would travel from, where to, and how often you would go (Kent County Council, 27 August 2026).

Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council, said: “Kent has always been the UK’s gateway to Europe, so it cannot be right that our residents, businesses and visitors have been denied direct access to international rail services from Ashford and Ebbsfleet for more than five years.”

No international train has stopped in Kent since 2020, when Eurostar withdrew from Ashford and Ebbsfleet.

What it means for you

Nothing changes at Ashford International in the near term. The domestic high speed service to St Pancras is unaffected by any of this, and the times are on our Ashford trains to London page.

If you want international services back, the honest position is this. The decision that was reported as a step towards it is, in its own text, a decision that Kent is not in the plan until at least the 2030s. What the documents also show is that the obstacles are named, finite and mostly commercial: two contracts Virgin has not sought, a station that is not currently fitted out for borders and security, and a business case that Virgin says it will revisit “when the business case was more favourable”.

HS1 has convened a separate working group on the barriers to reactivating the Kent stations, which the Department for Transport said in its consultation response that it welcomed. That group, rather than this agreement, is where an Ashford stop would come from.

The survey is free and takes a few minutes. On the evidence of these documents, demand data is precisely the thing the operator says it is waiting for.

Sources