The Eurostar Board has placed a £700 million order for ten new Siemens Velaro trains (they're an international version of the, er, ICE3), and is probably intending to use them on two new routes: London-Brussels-Amsterdam (hurrah!), and London-Geneva (hurrah!!). A mock-up of the new train was on display for one day only in London.
The livery is a little different from that currently used, and it will spread to all the existing Eurostar fleet over the next three years. The tired Eurostars, which entered service between 1993 and 1996, will be overhauled and refurbished at the same time, in a contract awarded to Pininfarina (which is disappointing -- TGVs have all been refurbed by Christian Lacroix who's done an immensely stylish job).
Eurostar claims the Velaros (which are faster than the TGV-derived Eurostars) will enable the London to Paris journey time to dip below 2 hours, Amsterdam to be reached in 4, and Geneva in 5.
Interestingly, the French government (which is the main shareholder in Eurostar) has reacted with, er, shock and outrage, that Eurostar has dared to buy German trains rather than French ones.
Um, no, I mean, they are outraged that Eurostar has dared to buy trains with distributed power systems rather than locomotives (this is despite the next generations Alstom TGVs (the "AGV") also being, er, a distributed power train).
This may just be a delaying tactic, since a temporary ban on distributed power would also prevent DB from launching its proposed services, and the ban then might be mysteriously lifted just before Eurostar needs to order a fleet of replacement trains when, of course, Alstom's AGV would then be eligible to compete alongside Siemens Velaros.
3 comments:
London-Geneva? London-Geneva?!
Damnation, I lived in that poxy Swiss city for over a year and regularly had to fly to/from the UK. My carbon footprint was sky high, and all that horrible time in cramped cabins and turbulence and airports. Argh!
And now, after I've left, they propose this idea. Oh, I want to cry.
On the other hand, if Her Majesty's Government sees fit not to eviscerate UK science funding, there'd be much usage of that particular service, especially if a decent Wifi service were included.
What can I, a lowly American, add to this conversation? Oh, and worse off, I live in America.
It's OK, I accept your pity.
We have Amtrak. It's still hanging on. It's old, outdated and in desperate need of better funding, but it's hanging on.
We can't even excite people with pictures of modern trains in Europe and Asia. No one here cares. Some love model trains, but no one cares to ride real ones.
I found you, Le Duc. You could run, but you couldn't hide from me.
Me, Mike of Naked Public Guyz. Remember me? It's been a while. Blogger gave us the blog back a few hours ago. It only took 7 weeks. Things do happen rather slowly over here. Even one of our top companies took that long to reopen a blog it mistakenly closed. You do not really need to wonder why China will soon be the world's top superpower. The evidence is all around us as to why they will be. Start kissing their asses now. Don't say I didn't warn you.
You guys are quietly adding rail from an island to Europe, and we in America are arguing about why apes are not evolving before our very eyes to prove that evolution really does exist.
Can I rent a room from one of you guys? I'm quiet. I'll clean up after myself.
Please.
See you later. Mike
Tyncanman: better late than never, eh?
Mike: welcome back!
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