Regional Eurostar
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Regional Eurostar was the name given to plans to operate Eurostar train services from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom beyond London.
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[edit] Beginnings
When the Channel Tunnel was first announced in the 1980s it was part of the proposals to operate high-speed rail services through it on both sides of the English Channel with a substantial network envisioned. This was gradually reduced to a core service, along dedicated TGV-style high-speed lines, between the three capital cities, regional daytime services to Glasgow (via the East Coast Main Line) and Manchester (via the West Coast Main Line), and Nightstar sleeper services to the same cities as well as the West Country and Wales via the Great Western Main Line.
The trains to operate all these services were built at the same time as the Channel Tunnel was under construction in the late 1980s to early 1990s. The London-Paris-Brussels Three Capital trains consist of 18-coaches in a fixed formation and are currently used for Eurostar services. Seven shorter 14-coach North of London (NoL) were also constructed for the regional services at a cost of £180 million. The Nightstar sleeper trains were never completed and have subsequently been sold to VIA Rail in Canada.
Depots for the regional Eurostar services were constructed around the UK, including in Manchester at Manchester International Depot. Trial runs were undertaken using the NoL units on both the East and West Coast Main Lines and passenger information signs and Eurostar lounges were installed at stations along the route. As the high-speed rail line between London and the Channel Tunnel, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), was not under construction Eurostar services within the UK were forced to use existing rail lines and connecting junctions were built to allow Regional Eurostars access via the congested North London Line. In all British Rail invested £140 million in infrastructure to allow the services to operate.
[edit] Privatisation
Regional Eurostar services were never to run. At the same time as the Channel Tunnel was nearing completion British Rail was undergoing the long process of privatisation and regional Eurostar can be seen as a victim of it. Many had seen regional services as more a political than economic cause, a means of gaining support for Channel Tunnel from areas of the UK outside the South-East. The economic case for merely the inter-capital services was questioned at the time but by the time the Channel Tunnel was opened in 1993 backing for regional services had already started to dry up. The British Rail subsidiary European Passenger Services (EPS), which was to undertake Eurostar operations jointly with SNCF of France and SNCB of Belgium, took ownership of the NoL units in 1996 at the same time as it was under the process of being privatised and transferred to London and Continental Railways (LCR) who has won the contract to build the CTRL and run Eurostar services.
Due to worse than expected passenger numbers on the inter-capital services, which many have blamed on both British Rail and LCRs overconfident forecasts, by 1998 LCR was in financial trouble. As part of a new deal with the UK government in 1998 LCR sub-contracted its share of Eurostar operations, via Eurostar (UK), to InterCapital and Regional Rail (ICRR). As part of its bid ICRR stated that regional Eurostar services could not run without government subsidy, which the Department for Transport was unwilling to provide. The only other bidder to operate the UK share of the Eurostar operation for LCR, Richard Branson's Virgin Group, claimed it was willing to run regional Eurostar services at its own risk, however it subsequently informed the UK government that it too saw them as unviable. As part of its contract LCR was not legally required to start regional Eurostar services and by 1999 it was clear that they would not operate.
British Rail, via EPS, ran a token domestic service from certain locations around the UK into Waterloo station using HSTs allowing connection with onward Eurostar service between May 1995 and January 1997 but these were ended at the time of privatisation.
[edit] Reasons given and criticism
Whilst officially regional Eurostar services have not been cancelled but are on hold or under review, there are no longer many people who expect them to ever operate. The most often cited reason given why they have not run is that economically they are unviable. The 1990s saw a huge expansion in air travel across Europe with low-cost airlines flying from most major cities in the UK to locations on the continent, against which regional Eurostar services, with predicted journey times of almost nine hours for Glasgow to Paris, could not compete.
Unlike other international train services within the European Union where border controls have either had a long history of operation or are no longer enforced the UK maintains concerns about customs and immigration. The inter-capital services still operate separately from the rest of the British railway network with passport checks carried out at Waterloo and Ashford International stations. There was concern that similar tight control would not be possible upon regional Eurostar services where separate check-in facilities at stations did not exist.
To stop regional Eurostar services competing with domestic services in the envisioned competitive market that it was hoped the privatisation of British Rail would create they were not to stop in London and only allowed to pickup at regional stations whilst going south and set down passengers going north. This was cited as another negative reason for their non-economic viability.
The politics of the regional Eurostar service, along with many other Channel Tunnel-related projects has been complicated over the years. In 1999 the Department for Transport commissioned Arthur D Little Ltd to write an independent report into regional Eurostar service which was published in February 2000 [1]
[edit] The future?
With the completion of section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2007, which is being built to include connections directly to both the East Coast Main Line and North London Line (for the West Coast Main Line) at St Pancras, there remains hope that regional Eurostar services may begin thanks to improved journey times including a potential saving of 50 minutes. Also since the early 1990s the maximum speed on the West Coast Main Line has been increased from 110 to 125 mph, with ongoing work aiming to increase some sections to 135 or 140mph. Key pieces of infrastructure still belong to LCR via their subsidiary London & Continental Stations and Property (LCSP) such as the Manchester International Depot. While there have not been any official announcement of plans to start services, Eurostar make a point to remind people that they still own several track access rights and paths on both the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines, hinting at the possibility of Regional Eurostar services in the near future.[1][2][3]
[edit] The routes
Due to track arrangements, customs and competition concerns and that the Eurostar terminal was located at Waterloo railway station on the south side of London regional Eurostar services were not to call at London. Therefore they would have run to Paris and Brussels from the following likely locations:
[edit] East Coast Main Line
[edit] West Coast Main Line
Slots in British Rail/Railtrack/Network Rails timetables for regional Eurostar services were included for many years even though the services did not run. This factor was objected to by some train operating companies who were informed they could not run additional domestic services along the congested mainlines. The dropping of these slots around 1999/2000 was seen by many as the final admission that regional Eurostar services would not ever operate. However they still do own the rights to reinstate several paths as desired.
[edit] North of London trains
The Three Capital class 373 trains are owned in groups by Eurostar (UK) (subsidiary of LCR), SNCF and SNCB but operate as a common pool. However the seven NoL trains, formed of 14 half-sets, are all owned by Eurostar (UK) having been transferred from British Rail. Following the non-start of services they were stored at North Pole depot in west London. Three of the seven trains were hired by GNER in 2001 to provide additional capacity on its domestic services. Branded White Rose after the White Rose of Yorkshire, initially they ran between London Kings Cross and York, then London and Leeds. Two of these units were given the GNER livery of dark blue with a red stripe. They continued to be maintained with the other Eurostar units at North Pole depot, where they returned to storage in 2005 following their return from GNER. It was a NoL set that was used to set a new UK rail speed record of 334 km/h (208 mph) in 2003 on section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The current future of the NoL sets remains uncertain, however due to their relative newness, high cost and capital worth are unlikely to be scrapped.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/272.pdf
- ^ http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_504359-10.hcsp
- ^ http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/NR_EastCoastCapacity2005.pdf
