A Westfield chief has backed calls for Eurostar trains to stop at Stratford International Station to give another huge economic boost to east London.
Senior Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms recently raised the prospect of a second Eurostar stop in London as St Pancras International has been struggling to cope with passenger numbers.
Scott Parsons, Chief Operating Officer at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which operates the Westfield shopping complexes in east and west London, backed the proposal.
He said: “Since it launched in 2011, Stratford International Station has been primed to accommodate the Eurostar.
“As one of the UK’s most connected hubs, Stratford City not only offers the perfect solution to the overcapacity issue at St Pancras, but opens up new opportunities for those coming from East London and beyond.”
He added: “With Westfield, the Olympic Park and the East Bank already contributing to the local economy as a thriving destination for retail, leisure, offices and residential, the arrival of millions of Eurostar passengers each year would provide a further significant boost to tourism and investment in the area.”
He stressed: “We fully support Sir Stephen Timms’ ambitions to make Stratford truly International.”
Sir Stephen, who has been MP for East Ham since 1994, first proposed international trains stopping at Stratford when he was chairman of Newham planning committee in the late 1980s.
Reviving the idea, he told The Standard last week: “It would be another very significant boost to employment and prosperity in east London.”
The Stratford shopping complex, and the 2012 Olympics, have been pivotal in transforming this area of east London.
But the veteran Labour MP is arguing that international trains stopping at Stratford would make the area even more attractive for firms to locate in.
“I’m quite sure we would get more investment and companies coming,” he said.
Under the proposal, Eurostar trains would leave St Pancras and stop at Stratford International on their way to the Channel, and do the reverse for inbound services to Britain.
New Anglo-French border posts would have to be set up at Stratford, similar to those which already exist at St Pancras.
Eurostar, though, stressed it had no plans to go to Stratford International and that changes for Kent were not in its plans for 2024/25.
The Department for Transport’s position is that decisions on which stations to operate to is a commercial and operational one for Eurostar, as the only international operator.
But ministers are stressing the importance of smooth passenger flows for international rail services, especially as a new e-borders system for the European Union is being introduced in November.
Rail services linking the UK to continental Europe have not stopped at Ashford or Ebbsfleet since March 2020.
