LONG-SUFFERING rail commuters from the Medway Towns could miss out on the chance to use new high-speed Channel Tunnel rail link trains, Labour MPs have warned. The area’s three MPs have expressed fears that the Medway Towns could be sidelined by the Strategic Rail Authority, responsible for awarding the contract for the new domestic services along the route.

They claim that would-be operators will be told that running services into the Medway towns along the line will be an optional extra – not a compulsory part of any contract. Instead, the priority would be services running from Ashford straight through to the new international station at Ebbsfleet and then on to St Pancras.

Chatham and Aylesford MP Jonathan Shaw, who secured an adjournment debate at Westminster on Tuesday, pressed for assurances from ministers. He said: “We are extremely concerned that the SRA has not got on with the job. The tendering process for the CTRL domestic services is supposed to begin in the autumn and the SRA appears to be saying that it will only include the Medway towns as an optional extra."

It was vital the Government recognised that better train services were vital to the regeneration of the Medway area and the wider Thames Gateway region, he said. “For the new CTRL link to somehow bypass the largest single conurbation in the Thames Gateway would be ridiculous.”

He was supported by the Gillingham MP Paul Clark. He described the possibility of the Medway commuters being sidelined as a “betrayal". “There will not be fast-running services into St Pancras from Medway; the services will not start as soon as the CTRL is open and there will not be any easing of congestion for my commuters and many thousands more unless there is a reaffirmation of the commitment to the original intention of CTRL domestic services,” he told the Commons.

As long ago as 1995, then Conservative transport ministers pledged that the new international station at Ebbsfleet would allow the Medway trains to join the fast-link into St Pancras.

It is understood that the tendering process, which was scheduled to begin in autumn, could now be delayed. A spokesman for the Strategic Rail Authority said it was too early to say what the specifications of any contract were likely to include.