Javelins well off Target




With the London Olympics now only two years away one sport that should be top of our gold medal wish list must surely be the Javelin.

The Labour Government and South East Rail having invested billions in a new High Speed Rail Link to Kent and in brand new Javelin trains to get commuters from Folkestone to the Olympic Arena anything short of a Gold Medal will be a PR disaster.

Sadly though the Javelin trains are not all they are hyped up to be and at present not serving Folkestone and the other parts of Kent as well as they should. Fast they may be from Ashford to London St Pancras but from Dover or Folkestone to Ashford they are nothing special, indeed on that leg of the journey up to London they are slower than bog standard commuter trains.

High Speed trains as any engine driver will tell you need a high speed track to get up to maximum speed, something conveniently overlooked when the High Speed service to London was extended from Ashford last year.

Little wonder then that the rail yards outside Ashford Station are becoming parking lots for surplus Javelins. Little wonder commuters still prefer to take the usual commuter train into Charing Cross or Cannon Street.

Folkestone is undoubtedly benefiting from the arrival of the Javelin trains but for them to really hit the mark the high speed track urgently needs to be extended down to Folkestone and beyond.

An Olympic legacy any Secretary of State for Transport will be proud of for generations to come. Otherwise the Olympic dream will soon become just a passing memory and the parking lot at Ashford a javelin’s graveyard. An epitaph to yet another failed political career.


                           The Javelins need to hit their targets in 2012 .

 
                           At present from Folkestone they are just hitting commuters in their
                                   pockets and going a long way about it in the process.