Although that invites a different question, why now with 5 weeks to go.
The 0901 is a decent departure time, I've used it twice in the last year or so, and it was well used. The 0816 is a bit early, with the horribly early check in time required.
Because Eurostar now has the SNCF mindset of managing cost rather than increasing revenue.
I was also thinking that. But since Eurostar, like SNCF, regard both units as separate trains (that can e.g. have different fares for the same ticket), they just seem to use their standard process for a cancelled train.
Because if they did that, people will book on this train rather than pay more money to book and fill up on the 08h16 or 11h04 alternatives?
That's definitely Eurostar's way of thinking, also saving costs on running a train with its crew. A more dynamic company would take it as an opportunity to sell tickets on all three trains. I think Virgin (and potentially others) will be a huge wake up call for Eurostar.
And no doubt E* is currently trying to pay down the enormous debt it incurred during Covid (no help from UK Government) until that time comes.
I thought they had already it paid it off.
FS Italiane Group (which is effectively parent of Italian Railways) has set up FS Advisory in London in last few days (instead of Rome). This would strongly hint that Trenitalia is coming to London, even if it doesn't get a UK depot.
This is what Jon Worth has been suggesting, with then possibly starting service ahead of Virgin.
And not every train in their fleet is needed every day, so that you can do regular maintenance without cancelling services.
You can't do the regular maintenance without cancelling services if you don't have enough stock to go around. Whether this is because there's a pinch point of lots of stock all needing exam or overhaul at the same time, or because they've already lost their spare capacity to other issues, who knows.
At the end of 2024, £650 million if debt was remaining, down from £964 million. Based on the statements it appears the plan is to pay it off by 2029, so before any competitors are likely to start.
Thanks, that does explain why they're continuing their SNCF-like profit maximalisation.
Not the mindset of SNCF - that's why they've reduced TGV services and scrapped many TGV sets before they're life expired. All about cost reductions.
AJC applies, so you can use the next DB train with your original DB ticket.
Not necessarily, the principal reason I can think of off the top of my block would be sacrificing some profit in order to make the service more attractive and increase future revenue by building customer loyalty. For instance, running more journeys than is financially optimal in order to increase customer convenience and encourage more journeys in future.
