Discussion about re-opening Kent stations on HS1 between London and the Channel Tunnel is getting more interesting. The Bring Back Euro Trains campaign has been gathering public support to re-open the stations, Ashford’s MP says re-opening the station in his constituency is his highest priority and is building political support, […]
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When it was announced that Virgin Trains was successful in being allocated maintenance depot capacity at Temple Mills in east London, there was a sort of reaction “we’ll that will mean that Virgin will be the competitor to Eurostar then.” But no sooner had the decision been made that I started […]
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One of the aspects of my #CrossChannelRail report that drew the most reaction was my conclusion that serving Köln Hbf with trains to London was too complicated, and it would better to serve Köln/Bonn Flughafen or Horrem instead – as it would be easier to secure a platform and build […]
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*** This post is an adapted version of one part of my #CrossChannelRail Project Final Report *** Let’s get one thing out of the way first: the problems here are nothing to do with the Avelia Horizon trains being double deck. The loading gauge in the Channel Tunnel and HS1 […]
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After three weeks of research on the ground in spring 2025, dozens of follow conversations, and plenty of desk research, today I finally published the conclusions report from my #CrossChannelRail project – you can download the PDF of the report here. The stations map is also available in a zoomable […]
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As the discussion about future rivals to Eurostar has heated up, so more and more of the focus has been on access to the Temple Mills depot in East London. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) last week decided that yes, there was capacity for a company other than […]
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When discussing the future of long distance services through the Channel Tunnel, we generally talk of 400 metre long trains composed of one unit, and 2x 200m trains composed of two units coupled together. But when you drill down to the detail, these numbers are approximations. Eurostar’s original Class 373 […]
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The UK’s Office of Rail and Road has today decided that Virgin Trains should have access to the Temple Mills depot in east London to maintain its future Channel Tunnel fleet, and has rejected applications from Trenitalia, Gemini and Evolyn to use the facility. It has also, importantly, rejected Eurostar’s […]
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