The UK’s Office of Rail and Road has today decided that Virgin Trains should have access to the Temple Mills depot in east London to maintain its future Channel Tunnel fleet, and has rejected applications from Trenitalia, Gemini and Evolyn to use the facility. It has also, importantly, rejected Eurostar’s […]
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Working out what Eurostar is going to do – based on the numbers, not what the company says
If you take what Eurostar has said in its press release, Alstom has said in its press release, and what has appeared in the FT and The Guardian among others yesterday, you end up with the impression that these Avelia Horizon double deck trains Eurostar is to order from Alstom […]
Eurostar ordering just 30 Alstom trains: pragmatism, and a lack of ambition
Put all the rhetoric to one side. In announcing today they are ordering 30 Alstom Avelia Horizon (TGV-M) double decker trains (see the FT here), with only options for 20 more, Eurostar is being less ambitious than has been rumoured for more than a year, where the talk was of […]
What train other than Alstom Avelia Horizon could Eurostar even consider?
Back in June I wondered why – despite it being heavily rumoured for more than a year – Eurostar still had not signed a deal with Alstom for the purchase of 50 Avelia Horizon double deck high speed trains. These trains are to be called TGV-M in France, while Avelia […]
Constraints on future Channel Tunnel operators
Sometime this autumn the UK’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will adjudicate on capacity allocation at Temple Mills depot in east London. Responses to ORR from Eurostar and the four other companies that seek to also enter the market for long distance trains through the Channel Tunnel can be […]
Why you probably should not re-gauge railways in Europe
Once in a while the debate pops up that some country should re-gauge its railways – Finland being the most recent example. In this blog post I am going to delve into this issue, and explain why – in most cases – it does not make sense. But first let’s […]
