Railfuture comments on Eurostar announcement. Planning new trains to Germany and Switzerland:
It looks as if Eurostar has finally decided to expand. The Eurostar 50 new trains order has been around for a while but without stated commitment to run from Britain.
The "concentrate in the core, high fares" strategy is fine in the short run if you have no wider economic objectives but it has opened up a plethora of open access proposals.
Perhaps the most significant result is for Eurostar to realise that they are best placed to expand with less barriers to entry than new entrants. The key is to do this fast enough to keep new entrants at bay. The announcement to add new routes from London to Germany and Switzerland is strategically significant in this respect.
Open access has, in this way, already served a purpose without even running a train. In strategic terms this is good. Railfuture welcomes this development but makes it clear that this still leaves scope for more services and more competition, particularly on the existing Paris route and to the largest air market from Britain, after Paris and Amsterdam, i.e. Spain.
Also, sooner or later, someone will realise that there are other cities in Britain that have a huge air market, More people travel from Manchester to Paris than from London to any city in Switzerland.
Railfuture contends that the timing and the economics are right for sustainable rail travel from Britain as is the market appetite.
Railfuture's suggested choice of preferred open access routes.
This is ambitious for obvious reasons against the present situation but far less so in market terms. It also makes the presumption that the current preoccupation with immigration and security will be eased, with new technology and
EU» technology.
This proposes two strategic stops en route here, Stratford in long haul fast services to take about 30% volume to ease St Pancras, and Ashford for the Kent catchment area with its propensity to travel to Continental Europe.
Stratford or in some case, Lille would largely replace St Pancras as the interchange point from NW England.
Draft list of contenders.
Eurostar's proposals plus;
Paris route competition
London, Stratford - Paris (fast)
London, Ashford - Calais, Lille, Paris
London, Ashford - Charles de Gaulle Airport, Disneyland Paris, Lyon. Delete Lyon, add Tours, Bordeaux
Manchester, Crewe (Merseyside and North West hub), Rugby(West Midlands hub), Stratford - Lille, Paris (all with long platforms)
South of France and Spain route competition
London, Stratford- Barcelona, Madrid (fast)
London, Ashford - Lyon, Avignon, Marseille
London, Ashford - Lyon, Montpellier, Perpignan, Barcelona. Delete Barcelona, possibly combined to Avignon
Add
London, Ashford, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Disneyland, LeMans, Nantes, with multiple service stops to provide frequency to CdG and Disneyland.
London, Ashford- Germany route competition
London, Stratford - Hannover, Berlin (fast)
London, Stratford - Brussels, Koln, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Zurich, Milan
Belgium, Netherlands route competition
Manchester, Crewe, Rugby, Stratford - Lille, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam
Nord Pas de Calais shuttle in cooperation on fares with SE High Speed and domestic Ashford - Calais, Lille
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Notes to editors:
Railfuture is the
UK▸ 's leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight.
Railfuture's website can be found at:
www.railfuture.org.uk
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