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German Train Company May Operate to London
Tuesday, 06 Feb, 2010
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European high-speed trains, including Germany’s ICE, could soon be serving London under safety rule changes being considered by the Channel tunnel’s regulator.
The changes would bring the first passenger trains with larger, continental-sized carriages to the UK. The High Speed One link between London and the tunnel has the higher bridges and wider tunnels of continental railways but Channel tunnel safety rules mean only freight trains can reach it from the continent.
Rüdiger Grube, chief executive of Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-owned train operator which operates ICE trains, told Die Welt, the German daily, in December that market research suggested a Cologne-Brussels-London route was “very attractive”. It said 1m passengers from Germany might use such a service annually.
The Inter-Governmental Commission on the Channel tunnel started examining the safety regime last year to prepare the route to meet European requirements to open international traffic to competition from January 1 this year.
Eurostar is the only passenger train operator that satisfies the current safety regime. Its trains are owned by SNCF, the French state operator, London & Continental Railways of the UK or SNCB of Belgium, partners in the cross-Channel service.
People involved say that the regulator’s review appears likely to scrap the requirement that passenger trains using the tunnel be able to split in half and leave in separate directions in the event of an emergency. The facility has not been used in 15 years of tunnel operation.
Terry Gates, in charge of the UK secretariat of the IGC’s safety authority, said that no final decisions had yet been made. However, the IGC believed that in light of European rail legislation, it was time to ask whether rules that were written many years ago remained relevant. “The IGC would not want to stand in the way of trains passing through the tunnel,” said Mr Gates. “But safety is paramount.”
The trains most easily adapted to the length rules are likely to be those with motors under the floors rather than in power cars at the ends. Deutsche Bahn’s ICE3 and Alstom Transport’s new AGV would be suitable. Siemens, the German manufacturer of the ICE3, said it was working on a 400-metre version of the same design for China. Alstom of France said it had also been in talks with the IGC. London & Continental has previously suggested Eurostar might re-place its trains with AGVs.
New train types will still need to be adapted to understand the signalling systems in the tunnel and on high-speed lines to London. There also remain questions about how new operators would enforce the tunnel’s tough security rules and handle UK immigration procedures.
Valere Tjolle
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