Could Eurostar trains be shortened?

[Ianno87]

And of course the class 319 never met any of these!

I imagine as a one-off run with a suitable risk assessment and contingency planning done and few/no other trains about in the tunnel.

 

[HarryL]

Could Hitachi build an 800 series 200m long train that meets the tunnel regs to enable a rival service to run? Could cost be reduced by running the service from Stratford as a cheaper terminal and to get it open? I'm imagining a standard class only no frills service aimed at the easyjet end of the market.

It'd be hypothetically possible, but whether it would ever happen is another story. Competition to the Eurostar doesn't seem to ever take off, of course DB got the closest to doing it with the ICE train in St Pancras and the multiple subsequent concepts that all got shelved and Eurostar eventually gobbled up the original route plan.

An SNCF Ouigo-style service would be interesting but Ouigo runs at a loss if I recall correctly and with the UK government unwilling to spend any money saving Eurostar as it is, I can't imagine they would want to invest in this idea either.

 

[30907]

Well, most of them are! The full order is:

37 x 7-car

Which are designed to replace LH sets on IC routes - unless I've not been keeping up

 

[43096]

Which are designed to replace LH sets on IC routes - unless I've not been keeping up

It’s a bit more complex than that, I think. They appear to be being used on the Berlin-Ruhr services that split in place of ICE2 sets. I assume these then replace LHCS.

 

[Bald Rick]

Could Hitachi build an 800 series 200m long train that meets the tunnel regs to enable a rival service to run? Could cost be reduced by running the service from Stratford as a cheaper terminal and to get it open? I'm imagining a standard class only no frills service aimed at the easyjet end of the market.

Very difficult to run a service to terminate at Stratford. The unit has to run empty to (almost) St Pancras to reverse. And whoever did it would be paying for the not insignificant total cost of the border control / customs at Stratford.

 

[30907]

It’s a bit more complex than that, I think. They appear to be being used on the Berlin-Ruhr services that split in place of ICE2 sets. I assume these then replace LHCS.

Thanks. W****a has them as 230km/h which is below HSL speed.