Boltar wrote:
On 24 Jul, 12:28, PhilD wrote:
Only if they can be modified to comply with Channel Tunnel safety
standards, plus whatever signalling systems are necessary. This is
not easy, so it would probably be easier to build new.

How different are these standards to those required for the rail
tunnels in the alps?

This subject has been covered to death on both uk.railway and
misc.transport.rail.europe. In summary, services other than London -
Ebbsfleed - Ashsford - Lille - Paris/Brussels are not practicable in the
current situation for two main reasons:

1) All platforms at which the trains call must be secure zones, will the
only entry to the platform through security. This has the effect that
if you have more than a couple of trains a day, you need dedicated
platforms. Useful destinations such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, Cologne,
Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester have no spare platforms and no space to
build new ones. This could be solved by dealing with security and
Immigration on board the train between London and Ashford (outbound) or
Lille and Calais (inbound), putting undesirables off the train at
Callais/Ashford.

2) Trains through the tunnel must meet very stringent safety
requirements. Probably the most awkward of these is the need to be able
to didvide the train to use part of the train to remove passengers so
that a disabled and dangerous half-set can be abandonned in the tunnel,
and the passengers can be evacuated. Conventional TGVs are indivisible
sets, and coupled sets have no access between the two halves. ICE3s
suffer a similar problem for different technical reasons. To solve this
would either require the safety regulations to be eased, to something
closer to those in place in other long tunnels in Europe (eg the Severn
tunnel, the various alpine tunnels &c.).

Both of these problems can only be rectified by changing the treaty
between the UK and France that allowed the tunnel to be built. While
not impossible, it would take a great deal of time and effort to make it
happen, and most discussion on these two newsgroups has come to the
conclusion that it is highly desirable from a railway perspective, it is
unlikely to happen any time soon.

Robin