Railway Gazette: Channel Tunnel barriers must go

EUROPE: The UK's House of Lords EU Committee released a report on December 8 making key recommendations on the steps to be taken if the Channel Tunnel is to deliver its potential to carry more passengers and freight by rail.

The main thrust of the 'Tunnel vision? Completing the European rail market' report is that the Tunnel would be carrying more traffic if there were genuine competition.

Tunnel vision: competition solves it all. Nevermind that (1) Eurostar already rules the air/rail market, so there isn't much mor traffic to win for Eurotunnel in that sector; (2) the obstacle to railfreight isn't lack of competition but lack of interoperability.

But the Lords go further:

Another barrier the Lords want see removed is the Intergovernmental Commission which regulates the Tunnel and insists on safety standards not found in other long tunnels. They would like to see the rail safety regulators in Britain and France sharing the task. 'Safety standards used across the EU should apply in full in the Tunnel - it is not a unique safety case and does not require unique standards' they insist.

Beg your pardon, but since when are the Lords safety experts? The Channel Tunnel is a subsea tunnel, meaning trains have to climb out and can't just roll out on gravity; and it is inaccessible at intermediate points, unlike long metro tunnels. The only comparable tunnels in the EU are the railway tunnels of the Great Belt Fixed Link (8,024 m long, cross-passages every 250 m) and the Øresund Bridge (4,050 m, not a bored but an immersed tunnel with emergency doors between the railway tubes every 88 m) – much shorter. So of course the Channel Tunnel is a unique safety case, and at least the 30-minute fire resistance of separation doors is a justified deviation.

Furthermore, the possibility of access for DB's trains is more or less a done deal now, while the obstacle for railfreight is not necessarily within the Channel Tunnel: the Class 92 locos aren't approved for France. To solve this interoperability problem, all sides would have to sit down and settle for at least one locomotive type for which approval from Germany to London could be sought after minimal modifications.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Railway Gazette: Channel Tunnel barriers must go

In the context of market competition, the Lords 'are also concerned that the proposed Deutsche Bahn service, which intends to run from 2013, should commence on schedule'. However on December 9 it was reported that Siemens was running late with the manufacturing of Velaro D high speed trainsets for DB. According to a DB source quoted in the Financial Times, the delay could be two years, but Siemens denied that the delay would affect 16 similar e320 trains ordered by Eurostar.

...following their source:

Delays hit Deutsche Bahn's London timetable - FT.com

"Unfortunately, our train rolling stock provider has announced that it is suffering severe delays, which means we are now looking at a delay of at least two years before we start services to London," a Deutsche Bahn source told the Financial Times.

Siemens confirmed the delay to the programme but denied it had caused the knock-on to Deutsche Bahn's plans for London services, as the operator had not yet confirmed that it wanted the trains to be fitted out to run through the Channel tunnel.

...Siemens said yesterday that the delay in delivery of the Velaro-D would not affect the Eurostar order. "We are optimistic we can deliver those trains on time," the company said. Eurostar is expected the first trains to arrive in 2014 and said it "expected the delivery to be on schedule".

Seems like a concerted effort to inform the media (either that or one of FT and SD stole from the other). The detail FT is missing is Siemens's pointing at an unnamed supplier, which sounds fishy. Considering that a prototype is already running, a two-year delay sounds like they have to re-design some compontent from scratch.

As for the open-access competition, the real coup would be for Eurostar to turn the tables and apply for train paths to Frankfurt (though I guess such an attempt would meet a few 'unforeseen' obstales, too).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}