Eurostar

[cirdan]

The Siemens sets are additions. The entire original fleet is being refurbished. In addition apparently DB intends to use modified ICE sets to make them compatible with the Eurotunnel emergency protocols, for service between Frankfurt and London within the next several years using the EU free access rules.

From waht I've heard, not the entire original fleet is being refurbished, but only those presently in traffic. Several surplus sets are leased to SNCF and it would appear SNCF doesn't want to keep them long term and Eurotunnel doesn't want them back so they are likely to be disposed of within the next 5 year horizon. SNCF is also disposing of its Réseau sets, with the first two sets already being out of traffic, but none scrapped so far. The Eurostar sets are more less the same technology.

 

[cirdan]

HSR-1 from London to Dollands Moor has plenty of additional capacity yet to be used. Most of the traffic in the channel tunnel is road traffic ferries. At present there is at most 4tph each way of Eurostar traffic through the tunnel. It is nowhere near a congestion point so there is no need to worry about spending another 40 billion or so Euros.

There is still plenty of spare capacity on HS1 but not everything that goes down HS1 also goes into the tunnel. There are the javelin suburban services for example.

In the past freight didn't run on HS1 but used the legacy network, for which the dual mode class 92 locomotives were required. This was not a good idea as those lines are already pretty congested with suburban trains and furthermore getting trains from the South of London to the North of London required some pretty convoluted routing. Increasingly these freights are using HS1.

 

[cirdan]

Surprisingly enough the Eurotunnel's conventional freight services have thus far represented the primary threat to life and limb for Eurostar passengers. The passenger trains themselves are modern, fast, safe, and reliable. Unfortunately the freight services have been far less so. Personally I would prefer that the tunnel regulators focus on preventing unnecessary disasters by clamping down on sloppy shippers and lazy lorry operators/maintainers rather than focusing on restricting passenger rail operations in an effort to survive avoidable disasters.

I disagree.

The truck carrying trains have been the cause of most incidents. I'm not aware of a conventional freight causing any serious trouble.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Surprisingly enough the Eurotunnel's conventional freight services have thus far represented the primary threat to life and limb for Eurostar passengers. The passenger trains themselves are modern, fast, safe, and reliable. Unfortunately the freight services have been far less so. Personally I would prefer that the tunnel regulators focus on preventing unnecessary disasters by clamping down on sloppy shippers and lazy lorry operators/maintainers rather than focusing on restricting passenger rail operations in an effort to survive avoidable disasters.

I disagree. The truck carrying trains have been the cause of most incidents. I'm not aware of a conventional freight causing any serious trouble.

I don't think we disagree so much as I simply consider conventional tractor trailers on conventional freight trains to be "conventional freight." Also, in the future please consider using the [MultiQuote] button rather than quadruple-posting a series of discrete replies.

 

[jis]

Several surplus sets are leased to SNCF and it would appear SNCF doesn't want to keep them long term and Eurotunnel doesn't want them back so they are likely to be disposed of within the next 5 year horizon.

Eurotunnel? Did you mean the outfit that runs Eurostars, which I understand is quite distinct from Eurotunnel, specially after the British government divested itself of the ownership? Why would Eurotunnel want to acquire a bunch of passenger equipment?

 

[cirdan]

Several surplus sets are leased to SNCF and it would appear SNCF doesn't want to keep them long term and Eurotunnel doesn't want them back so they are likely to be disposed of within the next 5 year horizon.

Eurotunnel? Did you mean the outfit that runs Eurostars, which I understand is quite distinct from Eurotunnel, specially after the British government divested itself of the ownership? Why would Eurotunnel want to acquire a bunch of passenger equipment?

Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry abut the typo

 

[Andrew]

It would be cool if the LGV Picardie gets built.

 

[ScouseAndy]

1) While yes SNCF has TGV trains, they are the more expensive rail-travel option. The vast majority of travelers along the LGV Nord route are going to be taking the regular Regional and EuroCity trains, not the TGVs.

TGV is not always the more expensive. If booked in advance and travel off peak TGV can be cheaper than traditional trains. This is because in France intercitie trains have fixed pricing but TGV have dynamic pricing.