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And by popular demand, here's the #BullshitMeter for today's story about Richard Branson - Virgin Trains wanting to buy a dozen trains to rival Eurostar by 2029
in reply to Jon Worth

only to be taken over by the operator of last resort 😅
in reply to Maartje

@Maartje
Its open access so it actually earns money and pays for the use of the rails - no way either UK or France would subsidise it beyond the line
@Jon Worth
in reply to Jon Worth

If I rewind the clock to last century (!), we would have had Regional & Nightstar services with maintenance depots in cities away from London & what would have been HS1/2 linked up, with enough capacity to let us minions who don’t live East, West or North anywhere near London, to have a railway connection into Europe. We still haven’t a tunnel into Euston for HS2! They won even consider opening Ashford Station to existing Eurostar!
Unknown parent

Jon Worth
@JonnyT Sure, but Eurostar is not going to lease its trains to a rival. So if anyone else wants to run to London they're going to need trains. That's all.
Unknown parent

Jon Worth
@JonnyT The line has no capacity issues. It has spare capacity. St Pancras has capacity issues, because Eurostar trains hang around there so long. Checking how/if that could be made more efficient is central to this issue!
in reply to Jon Worth

Here's a few links that I had come across regarding the project - hsrail.org/blog/new-challenger… , euronews.com/travel/2023/10/12… and railwaygazette.com/passenger/t… - It sounds like there are two other proposals for competing services (three in total) - Personally I'd prefer leaving from #Stratford or #EbbesfleetInternational
in reply to abeorch

@abeorch A LOT more here jonworth.eu/the-future-of-long…
in reply to abeorch

@abeorch I think this Temple Mills issue is a bit of a misnomer. That potential rivals to Eurostar are using that as a mask for other headaches they have.
in reply to Jon Worth

@Jon Worth
Just throwing a curve ball - What do you think ? - From #Ashford faster connections from #Gatwickairport would open up a heap of demand from the south and west of the UK plus maybe a bit of #flytrain