Eurostar (UK) Ltd

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Eurostar (UK) Limited or EUKL is a subsidiary of London and Continental Railways (LCR). It is responsible for the British share of the joint Eurostar operation along with NMBS/SNCB (Belgium) and SNCF (France).

EUKL began as European Passenger Services (EPS), a division of British Rail. The Privatisation of British Rail saw EPS sold to LCR as part of the 1996 deal with the UK government to build and operate High Speed 1 between London and the Channel Tunnel. EUKL is the owner of 22 half-sets of "Three Capitals" Eurostar trains, i.e. British Rail Class 373 with 9 middle cars and of all 14 half-sets of "North of London" (NoL) Regional Eurostar trains with 7 middle cars. Two half sets of such trains form one full set with a power head on both ends.

In 1998 LCR ran into major financial problems and appealed to the UK government for support, see High Speed 1#Background for details.

As part of the resulting reorganisation a management contract for EUKL was to be awarded. Two bids for the contract were submitted by Virgin Group and InterCapital and Regional Rail (ICRR). ICRR was awarded the contract which runs from 1998 till 2010. Shareholders in ICRR are

• National Express Group (40%),
• SNCF (35%)
• NMBS/SNCB (15%)
• British Airways (10%).

In early 2008, after the completion of High Speed 1, the British government announced its intention to put EUKL up for sale. Deutsche Bahn has expressed an interest.^[1]

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