On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 14:08:52 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

Eurostar is not a franchise as such (the structure and is a bit
complex but essentially it's a joint venture) - but leaving that
aside, it hasn't had any 'exclusivity' (i.e. exclusive claim on the
route) as of the beginning of this year (i.e. January 2010), when the
so-called "third railway package" of EU rail liberalisation kicked in
- so called "open access". In other words, *any* operator is welcome
to apply for slots to run services right now - however they'd need to
have trains that complied with the Channel Tunnel's strict safety
rules.

These rules are set down by the joint Anglo-French Intergovernmental
Commission (IGC). They currently include the requirement that
passenger trains can be split in two and driven separately - it's
widely expected that this requirement will be dropped after a wide
ranging review of safety procedures by the IGC as it's never been used
and is generally considered unnecessary, though this has not yet
happened. However that's just one of the *many* safety rules and
regulations that passenger stock has to comply with to go throughthe
tunnel - and these aren't all suddenly going to be loosened up for no
reason.


I can't see an Anglo-French quango (the IGC) being in any hurry to
change the rules to make it easier for Deutsche Bahn to access the
London market.


At the moment, the only compliant stock is the Eurostar train sets.
Designing new trains, or more to the point re-designing existing train
designs, would of course take time - and there'd be an awful lot of
hoops to jump through between a decision to actually acquire such
trains and their eventual delivery, testing and certification to
Channel Tunnel safety regs compliance. Not something that's going to
happen overnight, even with the full assistance of the IGC throughout
the process.


See my comment above.


And I haven't even mentioned money!


Deutsche Bahn won't have any problem finding the money. The obstacle
is more likely to be the IGC.