Fire down below

tauringhuang.

Posted by: Economist.com | LONDON
Categories: Eurostar Trains
EUROSTAR, which operates cross-Channel passenger trains, is not enjoying the best of weeks. The Channel Tunnel was shut down on Thursday afternoon when a fire broke out on a freight train near the French end, and no rail services have run since. It is not clear yet whether they will do so over the weekend.

The fire highlights how reliant Eurostar's service is on a few vital pieces of infrastructure. When it's good, it's very good. When it's bad, it's horrid. Eurostar is in the process of asserting real dominance over airlines on the London-Paris route—it had 70% of traffic last year—but this imbroglio could well persuade some passengers into the skies again.

Air France-KLM is one of the airlines that seemed to accept that it had lost the cross-Channel battle against Eurostar. Instead it has been making a lot of noise about the train services it intends to run between the capitals, in co-operation with Veolia, a freight operator. The week’s other blow to Eurostar saw Air France-KLM announcing that its proposed rail service would complete the journey in less than two hours by using Alstom's new AGV trains. Eurostar’s service takes 2hr 15mins. Air France-KLM hopes to run the services by late 2010, when competition will be allowed on the route. And it seems probable, as previously noted, that certain trains will go direct to Charles de Gaulle airport, meaning some British passengers will be able to get to Paris's main airport more quickly than they can to London's (Heathrow).

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There is certainly scope at St Pancras for these services. As the Evening Standard reported: "St Pancras International is capable of handling eight departures and eight arrivals every hour—far more than the current timetable which has at most four departures and four arrivals an hour."

So two questions arise this week. Firstly, will the fire send Eurostar passengers scurrying back to the planes? I actually think not: Eurostar's services have been reliable enough in recent years for them to get over this particular problem without haemorrhaging customers. And secondly, will the company lose out to a fleeter-footed competitor in the next few years? Maybe, but a bit of competition could actually help Eurostar by killing off even more cross-Channel flights. Much, indeed, for the company to consider as autumn approaches.

Update: I should add that I've finally got through to an Air France spokesman who says the airline's relationship with Veolia is in its very early stages, that no routes, destinations, times or journeys have been decided, and that the two companies are still "evaluating a partnership".

Update 2, September 16th: Eurostar is running a restricted operation this week, with many fewer services than usual through the Channel Tunnel. Passengers with non-essential journeys are  being discouraged from travelling and to get their tickets refunded. Gulliver was due to take the train to Paris this weekend, but has now cancelled his tickets and is flying instead.  

(Photo credit: AFP)