Eurostar told to move over and allow competition
In a historic and much-anticipated move, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has allocated the spare capacity at the Temple Mill depot to Virgin Trains Europe. This opens the way for Virgin to start running a rival international train service and break Eurostar’s 30-year monopoly of the line.
Virgin celebrated early this morning by unfurling triumphant red banners near Eurostar’s entrance at London St Pancras station. These proclaimed cheeky messages like “Terms and croissants apply” and “May cause discomfort to existing operators”. Virgin founder Richard Branson personally expressed his delight on the company’s website.
The ORR’s reasoning
The ORR published a press release together with a letter of explanation for its decision.
Virgin Trains Europe (VTE) has won over competing bids from Evolyn, Gemini, Trenitalia and even Eurostar’s own effort to reserve the space for its recently ordered fleet. VTE is free to make a contract with Eurostar to share the space at Temple Mills, to order its trains from Alstom and begin its service by 2030.
In its letter, the ORR sets out why VTE were successful and the others weren’t, based on their view of realism and benefits of their respective bids. They were particularly mindful of the Rail Minister’s request to bring competition to the international line:
We have considered carefully all of our duties and placed particular weight on ourduties to promote the use and development of the railway network to the greatest extent that we consider economically practicable and to promote competition in the provision of railway services for the benefit of users of railway services.
The rail regulator criticised Trenitalia, Evolyn and Gemini for the lack of detail in their applications. They felt this indicated a lower level of preparedness, engendering fears that their service would not be viable in the long term.
Virgin’s next steps will be to reach a commercial agreement with Eurostar, who operate the Temple Mills site, and secure track access, financing and safety approvals in the UK and EU. And of course, the trains need to be built by Alstom.
What does this mean for Kent?
The ORR addressed the merits of re-opening the Kent stations under their “economic and societal benefits” heading.
It said that it had received no formal submission from Trenitalia following its announcement that it would stop at Ashford, but if it had, it would have made little difference. In considering the Rail Minister’s express preference for the Kent stations to be re-opened, the ORR had this to say:
In taking this depot access decision, ORR cannot fully address all these stakeholder expectations. In particular, we cannot mandate – as part of a track access decision let alone a depot access decision – that operators reintroduce services to additional stations on HS1. Nor can we prevent services being removed later on. This applies all the more in the case where the destinations in question are not included in operators’ applications to us…. We did not consider that this should be a determinative factor as plans can change and because this decision is specifically about depot access. We also consider that any decision that facilitates competition would go a significant way towards addressing stakeholder views. We further note that our decision does not preclude any operator from changing their eventual train service plans, for example to include other stations on HS1.
VTE did not include the Kent stations in their bid. However, they wrote to the leader of Kent County Council today, stating that they recognise “the significant public interest in the reintroduction of international services at Ebbsfleet and Ashford in Kent. If these stations are reopened, Virgin will of course stop in Kent. We look forward to talking further with you as we explore together how to reopen the stations, as it will require commitment and resources from all parties and operators.”
They also confirmed to us at BBET that they will stop at the Kent stations from day one, providing the stations are reopened. Thus the door remains open for negotiations.
Rail Minister Lord Hendy has repeated his backing, saying:
“We will continue to champion the reopening of Ashford and Ebbsfleet International stations as a priority to restore full connectivity, support tourism and boost growth across the region.”
In an interview with Kent Online, BBET’s Diccon Spain said, “The economic prize is absolutely huge,” while calling on the Government to “fund or facilitate” the upgrades to the stations.
And the other operators?
We have heard from Trenitalia, who have expressed disappointment but not defeat. As the ORR made abundantly clear, this was a decision centred only on the space at the Temple Mills depot and we know that Trenitalia have other maintenance options.
The rail commentator Jon Worth felt that the choice for Virgin was “simple, deliverable, achievable, rather uninspiring, and low risk” and that their rejection of Trenitalia was difficult to comprehend. Furthermore, he said:
Trenitalia is the only operator that could, theoretically, run to London without access to Temple Mills – it will be interesting to now see how they proceed.
Jon also pointed out that the next bottleneck will be space at St Pancras station, and that this is not being addressed.
The task of this campaign is not finished yet. The omens are good, but there is still work to be done.
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