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  Please distinguish between the use of the line by train operating companies and the use of SouthEasterns High Speed service.
  
  The line is moderately used by both Eurostar and SouthEastern, however until recently access was restircted to just these 2 companies. Earlier this year the government indicated their desire to open up access slots to other operators which lead to both Deutsche Bahn and SNCF expressing an interest in running additional services. The most likely is DB, whose newest ICE trains are identical to the new fleet recently commissioned by Eurostar. In fact both companies have carried out test runs through the tunnel and up to St Pancras.
  
  As for the SouthEastern HS1 service, certainly peak hour services are showing significant increases in passenger numbers with most peak trains now being 80% full at least as far as Ashford and a sizeable number of people using it beyond Ashford on both routes. It is worth noting that the peak services on the North Kent line are used only fractionally less than our line, despite all the passenger bitching earlier this year.
  Off peak services are a different matter, with many people being put off by the price difference between the mainline and High Speed services. It would of course be even better if the track between Dover and Ashford could be upgraded to allow all trains to run faster as this would trim running time for all services; sadly this is unlikely due to the cost of upgrading the track and particularly the points.
  
  I use this service every day to and from work and find it worth the additional expense, the onward journey from Stratford or St Pancras is straight froward enough wither via the multiple tube links, or the overground services or if you have a sense of adventure via bus or Boris bike.
  
  Howard the Mainline trains cannot use HS1 as there is no third rail for them to draw traction power from.

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