Some musings as we await the ORR’s decision on Temple Mills
The rail commentator Jon Worth has offered some more thoughts on Eurostar and its potential rivals.
Is your bid entirely dead if you don’t get space in Temple Mills?
Temple Mills, the only maintenance depot capable of handling international trains, has been touted as the main pinch point for competitors wanting to enter the cross-Channel market. It is currently only used by Eurostar, and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) are shortly to adjudicate on how to allocate the remaining 20% space.
In this article published on 5th October, Jon Worth considers the options for each operator if they are/aren’t successful in their bid for this space. The article is now more interesting for its deliberations of the unsuccessful bids, as it has been slightly overtaken by operators’ more recent announcements.
So, is it the end of the line for the operators who don’t get the UK maintenance depot space?
Probably yes for Virgin and for Evolyn, if the latter do not tie up with Trenitalia as mooted last April. But maybe not for Gemini or Trenitalia. Gemini’s approach is radically different because they propose to operate out of Stratford instead of St Pancras. And Trenitalia has maintenance options elsewhere, in Milan for example.
The next constraint, says Jon, is capacity at St Pancras. Despite the high ambitions of London St Pancras High Speed (formerly HS1), an increase in passenger throughput to only 2700/hour (3 trains) is possible in the short term. This is up from the current 1800 passengers per hour (2 trains). Gemini would be the only operator unaffected by this because they don’t plan to use St Pancras.
Why hasn’t Eurostar placed its order with Alstom for 50 new Avelia Horizon double-deck high speed trains yet?
Jon Worth writes today about this situation which becomes stranger with each passing month since Eurostar’s original announcement. He also considers the alternatives for the company should they eschew their original choice of rolling stock.
He made the point, in the first article referenced in this post, that Eurostar’s sluggishness in this may rule them out of the remaining space at Temple Mills. This makes makes it more likely that a rival will be favoured.
Jon also believes that as Eurostar is 55% French-state-owned, there will be political pressure to stick with the French manufacturer Alstom and with a product made in a French factory. This rules out potentially more suitable alternatives.
Jon concludes:
“It is not about the best train, or even an available train, but it is about the politics and manufacturing locations too. If Eurostar for some reason cannot order Avelia Horizon, what it could order instead is damned hard to answer.”
It’s a great article for train nerds who know their Hitachi ETR 1000s from their Alstom Avelia Streams. Enjoy.
Category: General News
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