OK, we have three pieces of “news” to go on – a story from The Times, a Richard Branson column in The Times, and this from Rail Magazine – that Virgin Trains is to order 12 high speed trains from Alstom. The central point: Virgin Trains is one of three companies […]
Newsletter
The €2bn question: why has Eurostar still not ordered any new trains?
Is there space for a further Channel Tunnel operator at the Temple Mills depot off the HS1 line at Stratford? The issue rumbles on, with ORR expected to make a decision on the issue by this autumn according to The Times today. But what if the extra capacity at the […]
Preliminary conclusions from my #CrossChannelRail project
OK, I have to face it: I bit off more than I could chew. When I conducted the research for my #CrossChannelRail Project in March and April this year I thought I would be done with the report from the project by the end of May. And it is the […]
No Villa Opicina – Divača – Pivka – Rijeka trains in 2025, no re-launch date known
Launched with some fanfare in the summer of 2024 (see The Times and Kurier that covered it for example), the “Trieste” – Rijeka international train service is no more. The train will not run in 2025, and there is no known date for the resumption of the route. This was […]
Trenitalia to run London-Paris in 2029 – the most serious rival to Eurostar yet
As I raced around Europe during my #CrossChannelRail project for the past three weeks, it looked like there were three or possibly four private companies in the frame to rival Eurostar on high speed routes through the Channel Tunnel – Virgin Trains, Gemini, Evolyn and possibly Heuro. But today’s news […]
The accessibility problems with Alstom’s new TGV-M train – with implications for future Channel Tunnel operators
There is no way to sweeten this: my original conclusion that Alstom’s Avelia Horizon (known as TGV-M with SNCF) is not legal at higher station platforms outside France was incorrect. Because transparency and correcting my errors matters to me, you can read the original blog entry in full here – […]
