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      Super High Speed Main TGV, Thalys and AGV >> Eurostars ICEs and Velaros AGV Shinkansen Maglev Sokol from Russia Pendolinos Swiss Cisalpino Pendol. Watching sf. Paris GNo High Speed Services Allegro Eurostar Fyra ICE as service Railjet TGV as service Thalys SNCF TGV Roster North American S.F. Chinese Super Fast Russian Super Fast Super High S. Records Super High Speed News Super High Speed Lines Super High S Manufacturers         | 4rail.net - Super High Speed Trains - Eurostars | |
 Eurostar
Group and other companies Deutsche
Bahn, the
largest railroad and logistics company in Europe, wished to buy a share
of Eurostar operations, but initially no one wanted to sell their share
of the lucrative operation, so the company was likely to compete on
some
routes of train travel with the Eurostar group. The competition is
possible from beginning of the year 2010 (EU open access for passenger
traffic), and since the British side no more has a restrictive loading
gauge nor unusual third rail electric lines, the normal trainsets like
Velaro or AGV should be ok for the route. Remembering that the Channel
Tunnel trains must have two half sets which can be easily separated in
case of an emergency. Others have also been reported as interested in
the route. In the late 2009 it was reported that a conclusion had been
reached, that the DB would become part of the consortium probabaly by
buiyng some of the SNCF (current majority shareholder) shares. Beginning
of the Eurostar Saga Infrasturucture
overview On the French side the infrastructure has been
in a good
shape for almost two
decades. The norm
is usually 300-360 km/h (186-224 mph) for the LGVs, up from 300
km/h, which will save
additional minutes, and giving competitive edge
against the airlines
even in
the
distance of 1000 km between the bigger cities, for
the first time!  To the top of the page
The future of the Eurostar traffic While the Eurostar Group has been quite succesfull in challenging the airlines for international traffic, more train capacity will have to be added due to strong demand of the Channel Tunnel traffic. The news magazines have expressed Eurostars interest in the new AGV super fast trains. However, the best seller Velaro super high speed trains of Siemens are challenging the traditional super fast trains builder Alstom on its home market as well. The most active international train builder Bombardier has also entered the arena with its Zefiro 380 (380 km/h, 236 mph) train offering! We'll see in a couple of years what the future will bring! One is for sure: The Channel Tunnel traffic is so lucrative, that Virgin Trains, NTV, Deutshe Bahn and other possible operators would certainly wish to take a slice of the markets or even challenge the Eurostar in its current territory of operations. The 4rail.net will have more information on the Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel owner and operator again in the near future. 
More
on future Eurostars and
other Channel Tunnel
trains
| Created for 4rail.net by John McKey. Pictures by Ilkka Siissalo, Sanna Siissalo and John McKey.  Also on super high speed  Super High Speed News provides you the newest happenings and trends in the super fast railroading.  A TGV and AGV Theme Page provides information on these most succesfull super high speed trains. 
 The Virgin Trains Pendolino class 390 is one of the many pendolinos found on the 4rail.net Pendolino page. | |
| Eurostar Trainsets Technology | |
| Eurostar "Capitals" | |
Eurostar Incidents  Picture: the Eurostar unit 3207/3208 unboarding at Paris gare du Nord in France after dash from the British side. The travelling between these huge cities only takes 2 hours 15 minutes now on train - beating the airliners from city center to city center! Picture by Sanna Siissalo 2008. More pictures from St Pancras (British) side of the Channel to follow shortly! | Eurostar
"Capitals" is a train set of two powerful AC locomotives and
two "TGV-length" units of trailers (2 x 9 trailers) (TGVs actually have
a norm of 8 trailers, except for the TGV Atlantiques 10 trailers).
|
 
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| To the top of the page
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| Eurostar "Regional" | |
 The Eurostar (international / capitals) unit 3201/3202 seen here gliding through a station in Calais on the French side of the line. Picture by Ilkka Siissalo. | Eurostar
"Regional" is a similar train set to "Capitals" but has only 14
trailers
(instead of 18). ->
No midlide overhaul
expected currently
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| To the top of the page
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| Eurostars and other Channel Tunnel operators trains for the future | |
The Eurostar unit 3001 beside the Thalys PBKA unit 4343 show two different designs for the TGV. While the Eurostars are used mainly for the Channel Tunnel traffic, the Thalyses traffic mostly north of Paris France towards Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. | Like
the
majority of other super high speed rail traffic, the Eurostars have
recently had steadily
growing number of passengers. While the original Eurostar Capitals and
Eurostar Regional units have been enough to provide capacity so far,
the situation will change with fast growing numbers of passengers
between London and the continental large cities. The increase has been
created with the opening of the latest high speed track sections on the
great
Britains side, as one of the frequent travellers commented: "it's only
20 minutes (to London) once you reach the U.K. edge of the Channel
tunnel". Interestingly some of the units were on lease to SNCF still in
late 2008 due to similar high demand causing problems within France.
|
| Eurostar Running on Third Rail | |
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| Two pictures by
Ken Storey of Eurostar units
on the third rail section of the British railnetwork before the
Eurostars moved to St Pancras station in 2007 and
started using the British super high speed lines which have
catenary wires to provide the electricity. Many similar
systems to British 750V DC third rail can be found today on subways but
the choise for today seems to be the 25KV 50Hz overhead wire. (The
rusty rails in the middle of the right most rail in the left picture
are probably for replacement of old rails). To the top of the page
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| Eurostar Incidents | |
| As
with any large scale operation, disruptions to
normal traffic patterns happen. Disruption of the traffic in December 2009 due to cold and snowy conditions All Eurostar traffic (not Eurotunnel traffic nor Keolis 395 were severely affected) ceased a few days before Christmas on 18th of December 2009. 5 Eurostar trainsets broke down simultaneuously, 4 of those inside the warm and humid Eurotunnel. The cold weather conditions outside were blamed. The traffic was cancelled until tuesday the 22nd of December and Eurostar sincerely apologized its customers. At the time it was discussed at trainorders.com that the blowing light snow might have caused the problems. The trains use centrifuge to dry the incoming air. This method works will with rain and wet snow but NOT the light snow in the cold conditions. Similar incidents were reported have happened in February 2009, 2003, 2002 and 1995. In the U.S. similar problems have also been experienced withthe high speed Acela units, which run on the front locomotive only on the similar conditions to stop the breakdowns. To stop similar incident from happening in the future, the Eurostar would be wise to invest on trains of different technology like Bombardiers or Siemens' to broaden its operations sustainability in the severe weather conditions. The serious fire on the northern tunnel bore on September 11th 2008 As we have read from the news, there was a serious fire on northern Channel tunnel on September 11th in 2008 caused by an Eurotunnels (the owner of the tunnel infra) own piggy pack train carrying trucks in the tunnel. The cause was determined to be the trucks overheated brakes, which caught fire when ventilated by the tunnel air on high speed. The train had to be stopped 11,5 kilometers inside the tunnel from the French side. After series of explosions the 29 truck drivers plus 3 crew escaped throught the service tunnel between located between the main tunnels. 14 people were injured from inhaling the toxic gases. The fire lasted for 16 hours with temperatures of over 1000 degrees celcius, and the whole tunnel was closed causing chaos among the travellers. The southern undamaged tunnel was reopened on September 13th with a limited number of only 19 Eurostars operating from London to Paris / Brussels / Disneyland Paris. With only one tunnel in use the reduced traffic schedules will be limited to minimum. With worse than 1996 fire damages expected it was estimated to take over 6 months before the northern tunnel is again in use and the traffic was finally restored to normal in March 2009. The tunnel fortunately has several crossovers between the northern and southern bores which helped to achieve near normal levels of traffic in case of some part is being repaired. Due to congestion the freight traffic was limited to night time only. Even in the normal traffic the freight traffic has a 125 km/h (78 mph) MINIMUM speed limit (trains travelling slower than that will have to pay for two slots intead of one, making using Eurotunnel uneconomical for slower traffic). |
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| To the top of the page
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| Eurostar Train Units Roster Pictures and Stories | |
| |
| Picture above: Eurostar (half) unit 3001 at Paris Gare du Nord in France. | Picture: Another picture of the Eurostar (half) unit 3001 at Paris Gare du Nord in France with a sister Thalys TGV type train. |
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| Picture above: Eurostar (half) unit 3011
with 3 of
its sister trains at St Pancras, London, United Kingdom. | |
|  |
| Picture: Eurostar (half)
unit 3201 at Calais minutes before descending to the Channel tunnel for
its undersea part of journey. | Picture: Eurostar (half) unit 3201 on the westernmost track of St Pancras main trains shed. Notice the restaurant right next to the track, what a great place for train spotting! |
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| Units 3205, 3212 and a third unit under the north end
of the St Pancras train shed. | Units half 3207 has just arrived to Paris Gare du Nord
in France. |
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| Units 3214 and 3215 rest under the arches of St
Pancras train "shed". | Picture: Eurostar unit 3221 with two unknowns sister trains at Paris end of their daily route. |
| More pictures will follow shortly. | |
| Other
interesting pages in the category on
4rail.net:
Super
Fast Trains Main Page Super
High Speed Trains News
Super
High Speed Trains
records Page
TGV
& AGV page
Eurostars
AGV Page Intercity
Express - ICE and Velaro Page
Shinkansen
picture & fact page
Watching Super
Fast Train at Paris Gare du
Nord The
SNCF TGV Roster Page Pendolino
special page
Cisalpino
(ETR470 Pendolino) story by Ilkka
Siissalo in the Swiss section! Sokol from
Russia
High
Speed in
Russia
Super
High Speed Efforts in
the U.S.
Super
High Speed in
China
Maglev
technology Page - levitation on the rail Super
High Speed Lines and Corridors... High Speed Services: Allegro -
Helsinki Finland to St Petersburg Russia
AVE -
High Speed service of Renfe Spain FYRA -
High Speed service of NS and SNCB in Benelux countries
TGV -
High Speed service of SNCF in France
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