High-speed route
Southeastern Highspeed
London → Dover · England
- Distance
- 125 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h 3 min
- Top speed
- 225 km/h
- Operator
- Southeastern
- Train
- Class 395 Javelin
- Countries
- England
- In service since
- 2009
- Runs
- hourly, most continuing to Ramsgate via Deal
Page last updated 2026-07-24 · figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Britain’s only domestic high-speed service: 225 km/h down HS1 to Ashford, then the 1844 South Eastern main line past Folkestone and under the white cliffs into Dover.
Kent got high-speed trains almost as a by-product. HS1 was built for the Eurostars, and only in December 2009 did Southeastern begin running Hitachi-built Class 395s over it at 225 km/h — the first domestic high-speed service in Britain, and still the only one. A Javelin leaves St Pancras from the platforms next to the Paris trains, holds the international line as far as Ashford, then drops onto the South Eastern main line of 1844: Folkestone, the ledge beneath Abbot’s Cliff where the railway runs at the foot of the white cliffs, and down into Dover. Ashford, which used to be an hour and a quarter from London, is now 37 minutes.
Along the way
- St Pancras International’s Barlow train shed
- HS1 under the Thames and across the Medway
- Ashford International
- Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel portal
- Abbot’s Cliff and Samphire Hoe beneath the white cliffs
- Dover Priory
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