140mph train from St Pancras to Ashford is seen as first in new generation of high-speed trains

The UK鈥檚 fastest domestic train service whisked industry bigwigs and media through the Kent countryside at 140mph this morning, previewing a service that promises to slash journey times from St Pancras to Ashford International almost in half and vastly reduce the time it takes to reach the continent via Eurostar.

But the 37-minute trip over the 拢5.2bn high speed one (HS1) railway line operated by Southeastern on Hitachi bullet trains will cost passengers an extra 拢8 a day return on top of an already-steep 拢117 a week season ticket. Southeastern will hope the offer of losing 23 minutes of journey time will tempt them onto the new trains.

The service makes just two stops calling at Ebbsfleet International 17 minutes after leaving St Pancras before arriving at Ashford. The case for Ebbsfleet as a destination is currently weak following Land Securities mothballing of its 10,000-home Ebbsfleet Valley development. Instead, company chiefs hope to turn the station into the UK鈥檚 biggest park and ride scheme when trains are open to the general public on December 13th. They will unveil a media onslaught aimed at car users used to traffic jams on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel, offering them one of 9,000 parking spaces at considerable further cost.

Lord Adonis, the rail minister, said that he hoped this was the start of a growing high speed rail network in the UK, having set up High Speed 2 to look into the viability of services from Heathrow and London to the Midlands and beyond.

But doubters point to the serviceability of current services in the UK and the high price tag for such lines; HS1 cost 拢5.2bn to build.

鈥淭he UK is too small, existing services good enough and the cost too high for me to foresee much high speed development in the next few years,鈥� said Christian Wolmar, transport commentator.

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