Regional Eurostar

One of the North of London Class 373 sets in GNER livery at London Kings Cross station.

Regional Eurostar was the name given to plans to operate Eurostar train services from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom beyond London.

Beginnings

When the Channel Tunnel was first announced in the 1980s it was part of the proposals to operate high-speed rail services through it on both sides of the English Channel with a substantial network envisioned. This was gradually reduced to a core service, along dedicated TGV-style high-speed lines, between the three capital cities, regional daytime services to Glasgow (via the East Coast Main Line) and Manchester (via the West Coast Main Line), and Nightstar sleeper services to the same cities as well as the West Country and Wales via the Great Western Main Line.

The trains to operate all these services were built at the same time as the Channel Tunnel was under construction in the late 1980s to early 1990s. The London-Paris-Brussels Three Capital trains consist of 18-coaches in a fixed formation and are currently used for Eurostar services. Seven shorter 14-coach North of London (NoL) were also constructed for the regional services at a cost of £180 million. The Nightstar sleeper trains were never completed and have subsequently been sold to VIA Rail in Canada.

A depot for the regional Eurostar services was constructed at Longsight in Manchester (Manchester International Depot). Trial runs were undertaken using the NoL units on both the East and West Coast Main Lines and passenger information signs and Eurostar lounges were installed at stations along the route. As the high-speed rail line between London and the Channel Tunnel, High Speed 1, was not under construction Eurostar services within the UK were forced to use existing rail lines and connecting junctions were built to allow Regional Eurostars access via the congested North London Line. In all British Rail invested £140 million in infrastructure to allow the services to operate.

Privatisation

Regional Eurostar services were never to run. At the same time as the Channel Tunnel was nearing completion British Rail was undergoing the long process of privatisation and regional Eurostar can be seen as a victim of it. Many had seen regional services as more a political than economic cause, a means of gaining support for the Channel Tunnel from areas of the UK outside the South-East. The economic case for merely the inter-capital services was questioned at the time but by the time the Channel Tunnel was opened in 1993 backing for regional services had already started to dry up. The British Rail subsidiary European Passenger Services (EPS), which was to undertake Eurostar operations jointly with SNCF of France and SNCB of Belgium, took ownership of the NoL units in 1996 at the same time as it was under the process of being privatised and transferred to London and Continental Railways (LCR) who won the contract to build the CTRL and run Eurostar services.

Due to lower than forecast passenger numbers on the inter-capital services, by 1998 LCR was in financial trouble. As part of a new deal with the UK government in 1998 LCR sub-contracted its share of Eurostar operations, via Eurostar (UK), to InterCapital and Regional Rail (ICRR). As part of its bid ICRR stated that regional Eurostar services could not run without government subsidy, which the Department for Transport was unwilling to provide. The only other bidder to operate the UK share of the Eurostar operation for LCR, Richard Branson's Virgin Group, claimed it was willing to run regional Eurostar services at its own risk, however it subsequently informed the UK government that it too saw them as unviable. As part of its contract LCR was not legally required to start regional Eurostar services and by 1999 it was clear that they would not operate.

British Rail, via EPS, ran a token domestic service from certain locations around the UK into Waterloo station using HSTs allowing connection with onward Eurostar service between May 1995 and January 1997 but these were ended at the time of privatisation.

Reasons given and criticism

Whilst officially regional Eurostar services have not been cancelled but are on hold or under review, there are no longer many people who expect them to ever operate. The most often cited reason given why they have not run is that economically they are unviable. The 1990s saw a huge expansion in air travel across Europe with low-cost airlines flying from most major cities in the UK to locations on the continent, against which regional Eurostar services, with predicted journey times of almost nine hours for Glasgow to Paris, could not compete.

Unlike other international train services within the European Union where border controls have either had a long history of operation or are no longer enforced, the UK maintains concerns about customs and immigration. The inter-capital services still operate separately from the rest of the British railway network with passport checks carried out at St Pancras and Ashford International stations. There was concern that similar tight control would not be possible upon regional Eurostar services where separate check-in facilities at stations did not exist.

To stop regional Eurostar services competing with domestic services in the envisioned competitive market that it was hoped the privatisation of British Rail would create, they were not to stop in London and only allowed to pick up at regional stations whilst going south and set down passengers going north. This was cited as another negative reason for their economic non-viability.

The politics of the regional Eurostar service, along with many other Channel Tunnel-related projects has been complicated over the years. In 1999 the Department for Transport commissioned Arthur D Little Ltd to write an independent report into regional Eurostar service which was published in February 2000.

The future

With the opening of High Speed 1 in November 2007, which has connections to both the East Coast Main Line and North London Line (for the West Coast Main Line) at St Pancras, there remains hope that the significantly improved journey times now available to potential Regional Eurostar services may make the service more viable. In addition, the maximum speed on the West Coast Main Line has been increased from 110 to 125 mph since the early 1990s, with ongoing work aiming to increase some sections to 135 or 140mph in the coming years. Key pieces of infrastructure still belong to LCR via their subsidiary London & Continental Stations and Property (LCSP) such as the Manchester International Depot.

While there has not been any official announcement of plans to start Regional Eurostar services, during recent enquiries into capacity on the East Coast Main Line it has been mentioned that Eurostar (UK) still own several track access rights and the rights to paths on both the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines, hinting at the possibility of services at some point in the future. But for the time being, at least, the nearest the UK has to Regional Eurostar services is the same-station connections now available at St Pancras from northern cities along the Midland Main Line route e.g Leicester and Sheffield.

The routes

Due to track arrangements, customs and competition concerns and that the Eurostar terminal was located at Waterloo railway station on the south side of London regional Eurostar services were not to call at London. The Summer 1999 National Rail Timetable indicates the trains would have called at the following stations, with one train per day on the ECML Glasgow route, and two running to Manchester, one via the Trent Valley line and one via the Birmingham line. The faster train would not have called at stations between Stafford and Milton Keynes.

East Coast Main Line

• Glasgow Central
• Edinburgh Waverley
• Newcastle Central
• Darlington
• York
• Doncaster
• Newark North Gate
• Peterborough

West Coast Main Line

• Manchester Piccadilly
• Stockport
• Crewe
• Stafford
• Wolverhampton
• Birmingham New Street
• Birmingham International
• Coventry
• Rugby
• Milton Keynes

Slots in British Rail/Railtrack/Network Rail's timetables for regional Eurostar services were included for many years even though the services did not run. This factor was objected to by some train operating companies who were informed they could not run additional domestic services along the congested mainlines. The dropping of these slots around 1999/2000 was seen by many as the final admission that regional Eurostar services would not ever operate. However Eurostar (UK) still own the rights to reinstate several paths in the future if desired.

Rolling stock

Main article: British Rail Class 373

The Three Capital Class 373 trains are owned in groups by Eurostar (UK) (subsidiary of LCR), SNCF and SNCB but operate as a common pool. However the seven NoL trains, formed of 14 half-sets, are all owned by Eurostar (UK) having been transferred from British Rail. Following the non-start of regional services, the trains were stored at North Pole depot in west London. Six of the seven trains have seen use at various times since.

Between 2001–2005, British ECML operator GNER used three train sets to provide additional domestic capacity. Branded White Rose after the White Rose of Yorkshire, sets 3301–3306 received a deep-blue livery using vinyl wraps, with 3308–3312 being stripped of their Eurostar logos to fulfill the roster when the GNER-branded sets were unavailable. Initially the GNER "White Rose" services ran between London Kings Cross and York, then, after clearance was given, between London and Leeds. The sets continued to be maintained with the other Eurostar units at North Pole depot, where they returned to storage in 2005 following the end of the GNER lease.

NoL set 3313/14 was used during acceptance testing on section 1 of High Speed 1 and in the process of over-speed testing, set a new UK rail speed record of 334.7 km/h (208 mph) in 2003. The set is named "Entente Cordiale" and has seen use as a VIP charter train, having transported the Queen on a state visit to France and to the Entente Cordiale anniversary celebrations in 2004. On 2007-06-12 the unit was used to ferry International Olympic Committee inspectors from Stratford International to London St. Pancras, as a demonstration for Olympic Javelin services in 2012.

Future

The current future of the NoL sets remains uncertain, however due to their relative newness, high cost and capital worth are unlikely to be scrapped.

Current information at the start of 2007 is that 6.5 of the 7 train sets have been loaned to SNCF for use on the Paris–Lille shuttle. The sets 3301/02, 3303/04, 3305/06, 3309/10, 3311/12, 3313/14 are likely to see regular service with half-set 3307 being kept as a spare in France and 3308 being retained in the UK (North Pole) as a source of parts.

Software upgrades are believed to be required to allow the units to operate independently as a half-set and it's likely that the units will receive a similar paint-scheme to the Three Capitals Eurostar units already in use by SNCF for domestic service.

Fresh plans have been proposed with a new line between London and Birmingham, called High Speed Two.

External links

• Arthur D. Little (1999?). "Review of regional Eurostar services: summary report". DfT Rail Group. Retrieved 2007-12-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, and |accessmonthday= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Official report into Regional Eurostar by the Department for Transport
• BBC report from 1999 about the failure to run services
• High Speed Rail to the North