On 06/04/2010 10:45, Mizter T wrote:

On Apr 5, 10:21 pm,
wrote:

On 05/04/2010 21:49, Peter Masson wrote:

"Roland wrote

They could probably cope if they stabled the trains somewhere else. I
don't know if they have the paths or the capacity at Stratford depot.
But with up to five Eurostars inside St Pancras at times (but probably
only three scheduled to depart in the next hour), there isn't room for
much more!

E*s proliferate to fill the platform space available at St Pancras.
There are six international platforms, so there should be no difficulty
in handling six arrivals and departures per hour, and eight should not
be impossible. Currently the Channel Tunnel can provide 20 paths per
hour. Eurotunnel is entitled to use half of these, leaving 10 paths for
international railways trains. But because E*s (and potentially other
international passenger trains) run at a higher speed through the Tunnel
than Eurotunnel Shuttles, a E* takes two paths, or a flight of two E*s
takes three paths. So the capacity for international passenger trains is
only 6 tph. If the signalling in the Tunnel was beefed up it is possible
that there could be 24 paths per hour. 12 of these would be available
for through railways trains, which, in flights of two, makes a maximum
capacity of 8 tph. Of course, ir would be better use of Tunnel capacity,
if the traffic could be attracted, to use a good proportion of the
through railways capacity for international freight.

Another issue of course, is that the E* rolling stock is specially
designed to run under the tunnel. IIRC, that is a requirement.

Yes.


Does DB or NS have such equipment at the moment? If not, then from where
are they going to get it?

A train manufacturer. Any such train could likely be based on the
existing ICE train type, so it wouldn't have to be designed from
scratch.

But how long would it take to get new rolling stock? And when does the
current franchise's exclusivity end?

One other question: What exactly are those storm doors' purpose at the
end of each car on E* rolling stock?