Stratford International in line for funding to run international trains

Stratford International station in east London will receive funding in next week's budget to enable international rail services, according to reports cited by The Guardian.

The station has so far been used only by domestic routes between central London and Kent. Eurostar, the high-speed service that runs between London and France, passes through it without stopping. Stratford International opened in late 2009 and was originally designed to handle Eurostar trains, but that plan was never fully developed.

London mayor Sadiq Khan has been lobbying ministers for the money. He has argued that upgrading the station to run international trains would be a better option than building a third runway at Heathrow airport, according to The Guardian. Khan posted on X that international trains should run from Stratford instead of expanding Heathrow, and that the station is ready for its next chapter with European rail links.

Making the station fit for international passengers would require a border post, security checks, a check-in zone, a waiting area and passenger facilities. The work would start from its current two platforms. The cost of opening the station and its mothballed international section, meaning the part that has been closed off and kept in reserve, is estimated at £20m, according to the Evening Standard as cited by The Guardian.

Khan's plan, as reported by the Evening Standard, is for one in three trains to and from France to stop at Stratford International. The Financial Times reported that Chancellor John Healey is reportedly planning to approve Khan's proposal for a business rate retention zone, an arrangement that lets a local area keep part of the business rates it collects, to help pay for the station's redevelopment.

The Mayor of London's official X account said that, thanks to the mayor's efforts, Stratford International is one step closer to welcoming international trains by 2030. Khan said on X that he has been working closely with the Government to make the station truly "international" for the first time.

Separately, Virgin plans to launch cross-Channel rail services from London to the continent in 2030. The rail regulator has granted Virgin access to track and to Eurostar's Temple Mills depot in Stratford, a rail maintenance site.