RMT to ballot Eurostar members for strike action

[TheWierdOne]

RMT to ballot Eurostar staff for strike action

Rail union RMT, will ballot Eurostar members for strike action in a row over safety and conditions at work.

www.rmt.org.uk

The RMT has announced they will ballot for strike action at Eurostar.

Jon Worth (@jonworth.eu)

RMT Union to ballot Eurostar staff to strike: “ballot comes as staff face worsening working conditions with unreliable trains, poor service recovery and operational safety concerns piling pressure on the workforce” https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-ballot-eurostar-staff-for-strike-action/...

bsky.app

As Jon Worth noted on bluesky, Eurostar seems to be stuck under a growing malaise of delayed fleet decisions, looming competition, and now strike action.

 

[AdamWW]

RMT to ballot Eurostar staff for strike action

Rail union RMT, will ballot Eurostar members for strike action in a row over safety and conditions at work.

www.rmt.org.uk

The RMT has announced they will ballot for strike action at Eurostar.

Jon Worth (@jonworth.eu)

RMT Union to ballot Eurostar staff to strike: “ballot comes as staff face worsening working conditions with unreliable trains, poor service recovery and operational safety concerns piling pressure on the workforce” https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-ballot-eurostar-staff-for-strike-action/...

bsky.app

As Jon Worth noted on bluesky, Eurostar seems to be stuck under a growing malaise of delayed fleet decisions, looming competition, and now strike action.

It doesn't seem very helpful to quote revenue without saying what costs are.

A company could have a revenue of billions and nothing left over to invest.

 

[JamesT]

It doesn't seem very helpful to quote revenue without saying what costs are.

A company could have a revenue of billions and nothing left over to invest.

It does if you are trying to paint them as evil capitalists.

Looking at Companies House I find https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02462001/filing-history for Eurostar International Limited rather than Eurostar Group. That has revenue for calendar year 2024 of £1.3bn, leading to net profit after tax of £74.2m.

 

[Trainbike46]

It doesn't seem very helpful to quote revenue without saying what costs are.

A company could have a revenue of billions and nothing left over to invest.

Last year Eurostar's EBITDA was €346 million.

The same year "bank debt" was reduced by the same amount to €650 million (correction: debt was reduced by €316 million, not €346 million)

Financial results - Eurostar for Agents

eurostarforagents.com

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Oct 2025 ==

It does if you are trying to paint them as evil capitalists.

Looking at Companies House I find https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02462001/filing-history for Eurostar International Limited rather than Eurostar Group. That has revenue for calendar year 2024 of £1.3bn, leading to net profit after tax of £74.2m.

So that will be excluding the former Thalys results, whereas the EBITDA I found will refer to the whole group (both Eurostar International Ltd. and THI Factory SA).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Oct 2025 ==

RMT to ballot Eurostar staff for strike action

Rail union RMT, will ballot Eurostar members for strike action in a row over safety and conditions at work.

www.rmt.org.uk

The RMT has announced they will ballot for strike action at Eurostar.

Jon Worth (@jonworth.eu)

RMT Union to ballot Eurostar staff to strike: “ballot comes as staff face worsening working conditions with unreliable trains, poor service recovery and operational safety concerns piling pressure on the workforce” https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-ballot-eurostar-staff-for-strike-action/...

bsky.app

As Jon Worth noted on bluesky, Eurostar seems to be stuck under a growing malaise of delayed fleet decisions, looming competition, and now strike action.

RMT's concerns are apparently about reliability, which is likely linked to the e300s/373s, PBAs and PBKAs all being pretty old at this point - I do wonder why Eurostar keep saying they'll order new trains, but then they simply don't?

 

[TheWierdOne]

RMT’s concerns are apparently about reliability, which is likely linked to the e300s/373s, PBAs and PBKAs all being pretty old at this point - I do wonder why Eurostar keep saying they'll order new trains, but then they simply don't?

I do wonder about Eurostar’s internal governance structure and how it is linked to SNCF. Whether that has any bearing on the lack of train orders I don’t know, but it seems silly for SNCF to let their little cash cow to be frittered away. Then again this is SNCF…

 

[nwales58]

I do wonder about Eurostar’s internal governance structure and how it is linked to SNCF.

A quick look at Eurostar's board shows the majority's careers are SNCF with a couple of Grandes Ecoles types and a couple of SNCB. As you would expect from the current ownership structure since the merger with Thalys.

So SNCF thinking is in their blood stream (don't blame them, their UK equivalent has maximise cost-benefit/financial return and outsource as much as possible to minimise risk in their blood).

 

[TheWierdOne]

A quick look at Eurostar's board shows the majority's careers are SNCF with a couple of Grandes Ecoles types and a couple of SNCB. As you would expect from the current ownership structure since the merger with Thalys.

So SNCF thinking is in their blood stream (don't blame them, their UK equivalent has maximise cost-benefit/financial return and outsource as much as possible to minimise risk in their blood).

Hmmm that doesn’t bode well for Eurostar’s ability to respond to the challengers they are facing