Newham Mayor's call
for Deutsche Bahn to stop at Stratford International
Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales has
been joined by prominent East End business leaders in calling for
Deutsche Bahn (DB) to stop at Stratford International.
This morning the German train operator paraded one of
its inter-city trains at St Pancras as it announced its intention
to run direct services from London to Frankfurt and Amsterdam from
2013.
Sir Robin said: "Stratford already has the capacity and the
connectivity, and is at the centre of London's major development
plans for the next 25 years.
"There is already an economic case for international services to be
run from Stratford International from 2012, and we must also
develop the new high speed network so it links into Europe through
the Channel Tunnel. Stratford would become the strategic location
where we can link the three major infrastructure projects of HS1,
HS2 and Crossrail.
"It's an absolute travesty that we've got a £210 million facility
that's international in name only."
Sir Robin's clarion call for international services to stop at
Stratford has been echoed by voices including ExCel chief executive
Kevin Murphy, East London Business Alliance chief executive Liam
Kane and Canary Wharf Group Plc Strategic Advisor Howard
Dawber.
In July Sir Robin and business leaders put their case for
international traffic to stop in Stratford to the Transport
Minister, the Rt Hon Philip Hammond.
The City Hall event, hosted by John Biggs, Assembly Member for City
and East, was attended by Lord Heseltine, who commented: "The fact
that we are still arguing about whether High Speed One trains
should stop at Stratford after all of this time is mind blowing and
represents a massive failure of government."