Trains to Paris could stop at Stratford International from around 2030

Trains to Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam could stop at Stratford International, five minutes' walk from Victory Park, from around 2030. The Evening Standard reported the Mayor's plan on 21 October. A day later it reported that the Chancellor is expected to agree how it would be paid for, possibly as soon as the Budget on 28 October, though it says no final decision has been made.

The international side

Stratford International was finished in 2006 and opened in 2009, but only for Southeastern trains to Kent. Its two international platforms have sat effectively unused since, even through the 2012 Games. Passport control signs in French and English are already up. Eurostar has so far declined to stop there.

Opening them is estimated to cost about £20 million. The Standard says about one in three trains to and from France might call at Stratford, adding five to eight minutes to the journey. The international side holds 250 to 300 passengers at a time, and the plan is for a stop on the way, not a new London terminus. The route through the station, from ticket checks and bag searches to passport control and a waiting area, would need work, and shops and cafés would need putting in. Some facilities, including toilets, are already there.

Virgin, which plans to compete with Eurostar from 2030, is looking at stopping at Stratford. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which runs Westfield Stratford City, backs the plan.

How it would be paid for

The Mayor wants to fund it through a Business Rate Retention Zone, which would let London keep more of the business rates it raises. The Government is also talking to the French authorities about customs and border checks.

Until then

For now, Eurostar means the seven-minute Southeastern train from Stratford International to St Pancras.

Sources: Evening Standard, 21 October 2026 and Evening Standard, 22 October 2026.

Photo: the international platform at Stratford International in June 2011, by Joshua Brown, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.