Eurostar trains thunder past at nearly 90mph.

Platforms shudder and an eery wind sweeps across the rails.

But there is no-one in sight.

These are the platforms with no passengers, no advertising, just a lonely “Stratford International” sign.

It is London’s “ghost” station at the heart of plans to improve international train services for millions of Londoners.

Within four years, though, the mothballed international station could be bustling with life as thousands of people a day board cross-Channel trains heading to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin is already exploring running such services as it seeks to take on Eurostar in the cross-Channel rail market.

Despite remaining empty for so long, revamping Stratford to be a fully-functioning international station could cost as little as £20 million as so many of the facilities are already in place.

A double door on a nondescript, blank wall is the entrance to the station, hugely underwhelming given that it could soon be the gateway to some of Europe’s most exciting cities.

An eery feeling echoes around the complex, including through the grandiose concourse with vast windows beckoning in natural light and offering views over Stratford, the Westfield shopping complex and the trains passing below.

One in three trains to and from France may stop in future at the two international platforms at Stratford under the proposals being pushed by Lord Sadiq Khan.

It is easy to imagine how passengers could soon be moving through the station, from ticket scanning, to security, bag checks and passport controls before descending to the platforms by escalator or lift.

Even the toilets are in place, having been put in long ago.

The Government is in talks with the French authorities about a Stratford halt and signs in both English and French speak to the ambitious yet doomed plans of the past.

Construction of the station was completed in 2006 and it opened in 2009 but only for two platforms to serve Southeastern services to Kent.

Unlike Grade I listed St Pancras International, Stratford is a modern facility that can be expanded or built on top of, with swanky plans for a spiral staircase to a premier mezzanine for a first class lounge.

Security cameras are already in place to ensure the safety of passengers in such a major transport hub.

The first international services could stop at Stratford from 2030 under the plans drawn up by City Hall.

The Mayor of London is seeking Government approval for a Business Rate Retention Zone to fund the transformation of the station.

Chancellor John Healey is expected to back the scheme, possibly as soon as the Budget on October 28, which would see London keep more of the business rates raised in the city to fund the rail development rather than the money being used for other regions.

East Ham MP Sir Stephen Timms has been campaigning for decades for international rail services to the capital to stop at both Stratford and another London terminus, which previously was Waterloo.

But, the departures board at Stratford still remains blank.

Some 40 years on from when Sir Stephen first raised the possibility of a Stratford halt - when he was chairman of Newham planning committee in the late 1980s - international trains may finally be stopping in east London.