Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm noting from another forum that SNCF are laying up spare Eurostar trains which have been used on domestic runs in France, prior to probable scrapping.  They're very long electric trains ... would seem to be ideal to take over some the HST diagrams on the East Coast which are all under the wires ... allowing a couple more (?) HSTs to come to FGW, in turn lengthening a handful of Thames Valley trains too.  Or perhaps providing that Bristol - Oxford service; stopped at Keynsham and Oldfield Park, that would provide the extra Bristol Metro West service in that corridor, save the cost of the Bathampton turn back, and provide an enabling service for Corsham.

Why are they looking at scrapping this stock?

Aren't rhey run with in-cab signalling?

I don't think they would be suitable for frequent stopping services. However they might be used to provide more capacity on longer distance services.

Ah, must get my GNER Eurostar out and run it round the model railway today.   Used to enjoy seeing those when I lived in Sandy.  Don't think they could work north of York though because of gauging issues and iirc were limited to 110mph for some of the route.  So likely to be a very expensive option with limited uses.  I'd have thought Eurostar would have had first refusal on them, and surprised that they aren't interested as they are showing much more interest in expansion of late.

I thought the not-north-of-York was due to signalling (track circuits?) issues.

It was also alleged that the pan pressure was higher which led to more O/H line problems when they were running on ECML.

There are not many HST only services only run under the wires on the ECML, and why would we want to replace a 40 year old HST with a nearly 30 year old Eurostar when we are getting brand new train sets.

Common guys we getting new train sets why use someone else cast off

Who are you calling common?

And the Eurostars are exactly 20 years old, so 'nearly 30' is a bit off the mark.

Is it three-capitals or north-of-London Eurostar sets being stored, or both?

Same reason we shouldn't be scrapping the IC225 fleet: it is wasteful to buy expensive new trains for everywhere when there is stock arround with life left in it. If you use the IC225s (and maybe the Eurostar sets as well) there should be plenty of scope to avoid needing to procure any new trains to facilitate introduction of electric traction on the Midland Main Line once it is wired, and hopefully do something about the threat of overcrowding on a newly-electrified GWML with newly-shortened trains.

And the IC225 fleet is only arround 24 years old. Would be insane to scrap either in my opinion. As noted above, the HSTs (IC125s) are 40-odd years old, which means the Eurostar sets have another 20 years service left to give and the IC225s 16. In fact, electrics are supposed to have a longer lifespan than diesels so you could probablly push the class 91 locomotives, mark 4 coaches and class 373 Eurostar units to 45 or 50 years old. That's 2035/40 for IC225 and 2039/44 for the Eurostar fleet.

the other thing mentioned in today's Railways europe which has a picture of set being towed to PAris is tha have not been refurbished and are very tatty.

Maybe Eurostar/Keolis(SNCF) could find a use for them on the East Coast should they win the franchise.

Like others though I find it unlikely. Route availability, non-standard, depot facilities, driver training, all to be overcome at what cost? Is the outlay worth it when there is a firm order of new stock alreading on the way.

Eurostar sets only have one door each side on each carriage. That and the lengthy door opening and closing processes would lead to increased dwell times at intermediate stations.

I understand it's power/weight ratio is lower on the "Transmanche Super Train" than other TGV variations due to their fixed formation 18 carriage length with only two power cars vice four in a double length TGV reseaux. Shortening them may improve this, but whether that would prove cost effective is one for the 'experts'.

If they were introduced on the East Coast route, Im sure the executive compartments in coaches 9 & 10 would prove popular with ministers traveling between London and Edinburgh.

Except those ministers would only get as far as York unless expensive route clearance work was done.

Like what's happening anyway to allow 26m carriages you mean? With only 7 North Of London sets (nobody has yet answer my question whether it is those and/or three-capitals) there wouldn't be much point deploying them on more than one or two routes though, so the best use for them would probably be London-Leeds or London-York. Or maybe Swansea/Cardiff or Bristol to/from Paddington?? Of course both those routes will be getting IEP, and the shortage of vehicles in the GW IEP fleet is probably best made up by keeping the IC225s on the ECML rather than using Eurostar sets.

Or how about using the connection from HS1 to the classic lines near St. Pancras for the previously-aborted regional Eurostar services, calling at Stratford International to put meaning into the name, now that HS1 will have reduced the journey time to something more competitive? With the GWML electrficiation, Bristol might become a destination option in future also.

Customs/Border Control? One reason the intended service never got off the ground. And more likely today to preclude international services beyond London.

It's not for the lack of trying on the part of the railway operators, the UK Boarder Agency will not do on train checks (with a few exception) and will not increase the number of boarder posts on the grounds of cost,   DB dropped out of through trains when (if) Eurostar run their though service to Amsterdam it will require the passengers to detrain at Brussels to go through the UK Boarder post.

The Eurostars when they did run on the ECML 10 years ago caused no end of pathing problems, their traction system had severely restricted because of the high power demand and as someone mention the pantograph is not fully compatible with Mk3 OLE.

The only UK maintenance facility is Eurostar's Temple Mills depot which is busy with their own work, the other facility has been fully converted to IEP (Northpole) so it would require a depot to be built that would have to have half train jacking road due to articulated nature of the trains.

Cheaper to build new