Channel Tunnel Commission grants Deutsche Bahn operating licence for its trains to use the Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) which oversees access to the Channel Tunnel has granted a ‘Certificate B’ operating licence to Deutsche Bahn (DB). This paves the way for more work to enable the introduction of DB’s long-planned high speed services between Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Köln and London. These services had at one point been scheduled to launch this year, but due to many delays are unlikely to start before 2016. DB intends to use pairs of Siemens trains for the London routes but these have in turn been subject to protracted production and approval delays. A further significant hurdle is border and immigration control, as the UK is not a signatory to the Schengen agreement and the UK Border Agency only does border checks now at Lille, Paris and Brussels. Passengers using Eurostar’s trial service from Aix-en-Provence TGV to London this summer have to leave their train at Lille to go through immigration procedures. Over time the DB services could add ‘between 3 and 4 million passengers per year’ to the 10 million already using Eurostar.
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IGC grants Deutsche Bahn access to Channel Tunnel
EUROPE: The Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) which oversees access to the Channel Tunnel has granted a ‘Certificate B’ operating licence to Deutsche Bahn, the tunnel’s owner Groupe Eurotunnel announced on June 14.
The announcement paves the way for more work to be undertaken to enable the introduction of DB’s long-planned high speed services between Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Köln and London. These services had at one point been scheduled to launch this year, but they have been subject to repeated delay and it is now unlikely that they will start before 2016. DB intends to use pairs of Siemens Velaro D trainsets to operate its London trains, although these have in turn been subject to protracted production and approval delays, and are not yet authorised to operate either in multiple or outside Germany.
A further significant hurdle is border and immigration control, as the UK is not a signatory to the Schengen agreement which has removed passport formalities between EU member states. The UK Border Agency has stated that no further juxtaposed border controls would be permitted beyond those facilities already provided to Eurostar passengers in Lille, Paris and Brussels, and UKBA is also unlikely to approve DB’s suggestion that checks be carried out onboard. Meanwhile, passengers using Eurostar’s trial service from Aix-en-Provence TGV to London this summer have been required to leave their train at Lille Europe to go through immigration procedures.
Nevertheless, Eurotunnel has welcomed IGC’s decision, suggesting that over time the DB services could add ‘between 3 and 4 million passengers per year’ to the 10 million already using Eurostar. ‘20 years after the start of commercial services, the authorities have finally opened the Channel Tunnel to all. This is wonderful news for the millions of passengers in northern Europe who can now use this most environmentally friendly means of transport to travel to London’, commented Eurotunnel Chairman Jacques Gounon.
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“Twenty years after the start of commercial services, the authorities have finally opened the Channel Tunnel to all,” Eurotunnel chairman and chief executive Jacques Gounon said.
The decision will boost travel between Britain and countries such as Germany and the Netherlands and will, over time, add between 3m and 4m passengers per year to the 10m already using high-speed train services, he added.
Last year, state-owned Deutsche Bahn said it would delay the launch of direct train services between London and Frankfurt to at least 2016, compared with initial plans to start the route in 2013.
Cross-Channel train services are currently operated by Eurostar, which is majority-owned by French state-owned SNCF.
Eurotunnel gets a fee for each train passing through the tunnel linking Dover to Calais.
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and a bit of history:
5.8.2009 (Guardian)
British Airways ….. backs Department for Transport plans to run a new high-speed line via Heathrow airport and on to the rest of the UK, but a spokesperson said it would be impractical to target flights to more distant short-haul destinations such as Madrid, Rome and Prague. “High-speed rail cannot be a complete substitute for flying,” the company said. “There are relatively few destinations in continental Europe to which it would be practical to travel and return by rail in a day. Therefore flying will always remain the preferred form of transport for millions of travellers.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/05/high-speed-rail-airline-flights