Eurostar International has announced the award of a £700 million contract for 10 new trains to German manufacturer Siemens.
Siemens will supply Eurostar—which operates high-speed trains between London and the continent—with 10 Velaro e320 trains. Designed by Italy’s Pininfarina, the trains will carry more than 900 passengers at a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour. They will also be capable of travelling on other networks, as Eurostar makes plans to expand into Germany and the Netherlands.
Siemens beat French rival Alstom to the deal, which has caused some controversy in France.
Eurostar is owned by the French rail company SNCF, which holds a 55 per cent share; the UK government-owned London & Continental Railways, which owns 40 per cent; and Belgium's SNCB, with five per cent.
The company commands 80 per cent of the travel market between London and Paris, and between London and Brussels.
Commenting on the news, Nicolas Petrovic, chief executive of Eurostar, said: “Over the last 16 years Eurostar has revolutionised travel between the London, Paris and Brussels but our sights are now set on expanding our business across Europe.
“The transformation of Eurostar into a standalone business and the major capital investment announced today is a mark of our growth ambitions for the future. The combination of our new state-of-the-art trains and our refurbished fleet will assure our position as the leading rail operator between the UK and the continent and make us the obvious choice for short haul European travel."
Later this month, Germany's Deutsche Bahn plans to test one of its high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel as it considers opening a direct service between London and Germany.
The current Eurostar train was first introduced into service in 1994, carrying 750 passengers and operating at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour. Since then, the fleet of 28 trains has carried more than 100 million passengers between London and the continent.
