Great Western Coffee Shop

EUROSTAR has replaced its logo for the first time since the service was launched in 1994.

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The new look is intended to reflect the future growth of the service beyond Britain, France and Belgium following the introduction of international open access at the start of last year.

The new logo has just started to appear on replacement staff uniforms in the past day or so, and will make its debut on the Eurostar website on 5 April. It will also begin to appear on signage and trains shortly, but the transition will be gradual.

A Eurostar spokesman said existing stocks of printed material would continue to be used until they needed renewal. ^We are ^treading lightly^ for this changeover,^ he added.

The new symbol drops the three lines which represented the three countries originally served, in favour of a single element. The company brand name is also spelt out in capitals for the first time.

Eurostar is gearing up for growth in the next few years. Its plans to acquire ten new Siemens trains had become bogged down in a French controversy over Channel Tunnel safety, accompanied by accusations that the French government was trying to protect its own TGV builder Alstom.

However, the French have now indicated that they will accept the forthcoming decision of the Chunnel Tunnel Safety Authority, which is likely to approve trains with distributed traction ^ motors under the coaches ^ rather than separate power cars. If so, Eurostar wants to place its new trains in service in 2014, and launch additional routes between London and such places as Amsterdam and Geneva.

The company is also facing competition following the introduction of international open access. Deutsche Bahn brought one of its ICE sets into St Pancras last October, when it revealed plans to run services from London to Germany and probably other continental countries, which are again likely to include the Netherlands. The date for the start of DB services was given as 2013, but there were strong hints at the time that the Germans would like to start running through to London in time for the Olympics next year.