Siemens Gets Eurostar Contract - Alstom "Pas Satisfait"

Today's New York Times reports that Eurostar has awarded a contract for ten HSR trainsets; suffice to say, the French concern, Alstom, of Acela fame, is less than happy about such:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/busin ... train.html

Brief passage:

• PARIS — In an effort to prepare for competition on cross-Channel rail traffic, Eurostar said Thursday that it had awarded a hotly sought contract to upgrade its aging fleet of fast trains to a Germany company, Siemens.
  
  The announcement did not sit well in Paris, which had been backing a French champion, and officials sharply criticized the decision.
  
  The £700 million, or $1.1 billion, contract will provide Eurostar — which is majority owned by the French state through its ownership of the national railway S.N.C.F. — with 10 of Siemens’ sleek new Velaro e320 trains. Siemens beat out the A.G.V. trains made by Alstom, the French industrial conglomerate. Designed by the Italian firm Pininfarina, the trains will be capable of traveling on other networks, as Eurostar seeks to extend its own reach into Germany and the Netherlands.
  
  The Eurostar e320, as it is known, will carry more than 900 passengers at a top speed of 320 kilometers, or 200 miles, per hour, compared with the 750 passengers the current generation carries, at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, Eurostar said. It will also have onboard WiFi and entertainment systems. The company hopes the new fleet will better position it for the arrival of Deutsche Bahn, the German operator that hopes to start offering service from points in Germany to London by the end of 2013, when Eurostar’s monopoly ends

The article notes that these sets will replace existing Eurostar trainsets; let's see Channel Tunnel opened '91 or '92? Replacing twenty year old sets? Either what they bought first (pretty sure Alstom patterned after TGV equipment) were junk OR equipment simply gets replaced on twenty year cycles.

Safe assumption come 2020, existing Acela sets, possibly augmented with two additional Coaches per set, celebrating their twentieth birthday will still be "crawling' along between Boston and Washington - over the existing Northeast Corridor.

" Two different worlds, we live in two different worlds" (some may hold these lyrics and HSR over here vis a vis over there are related).

The original Eurostar trains had to travel on the third rail system of southern England on 750 volt DC and pass through tunnels and bridges. In many respects they were modifications of the French TGV.

Now that High Speed One is open they can use full European loading gauge - wider and higher.

Siemens would probably supply the same kind of train DB intend to use on their proposed service to Frankfurt. These are not yet delivered for DB.

Probably the original trains will not be phased out, but as the number of services continues to increase and new destinations open up there will be a need for more trains. Amsterdam ought to be the next increase (Home Office and Immigration are the main hindrances). It is possible that some of the original trains could be used on British domestic routes, perhaps to run through trains from the north to Paris etc. Some of them were used on the East Coast mainline.

Eurostar is now a company with three shareholders: SNCF, SNCB/NMBS, and a British company (not sure whether it is state-owned). The French do not control it and therefore do not have the last word on where the trains are to be built.

george matthews wrote: Probably the original trains will not be phased out, but as the number of services continues to increase and new destinations open up there will be a need for more trains.

The original trains will undergo refurbishment, and will indeed remain in service. Some of the Eurostars seem to find their way to other routes, as I rode aboard one in regular TGV service from Paris to Calais.

Matt Johnson wrote:

george matthews wrote: Probably the original trains will not be phased out, but as the number of services continues to increase and new destinations open up there will be a need for more trains.

The original trains will undergo refurbishment, and will indeed remain in service. Some of the Eurostars seem to find their way to other routes, as I rode aboard one in regular TGV service from Paris to Calais.

Several years ago I was on a French-owned Eurostar travelling from Brussels to Marseille, which I rode from lille to Picardie (one stop).

However, at that time the Eurostar service was not as intensive as it is now.