[Article] Deutsche Bahn to run in to London

Terrontress

German rail firm DB competes for Channel Tunnel route

Interesting article about Deutsche Bahn wanting to extend their reach in to London. I have to say, they are a really fantastic operation. It's interesting to see them looking beyond their borders. I know they already operate in the UK with Chiltern Rail and DB Schencker / EWS but maybe DB branded services operating in the UK might put a firework up the behinds of the UK TOCs.

I'd love to see them take their operations across the Irish sea too. Let's not forget that what is currently Stena was previously seen as part of British Rail as Sealink. A bit of joined up thinking is needed.

A bit of German efficiency selling a single ticket from Galway, Cork or Belfast to Munich with a minimum of fuss.

etchyed

SailRail's great for travelling at short notice on a budget but not really otherwise. Much as I enjoy taking the train, getting to Dublin Port is a pain and spending the guts of 8 hours getting to London is not very attractive. Throw in a tube transfer from Euston to St Pancras and another 3 or 4 hours to get to Germany and I think most people will opt for Ryanair. A shame but that's the reality.

It's not just Chiltern that DB own, they bought Arriva recently, so they run CrossCountry and most of the trains in Wales now too.

EDIT: Forgot, they also have the contract to run London Overground in a joint venture with the Hong Kong MTR. I wouldn't imagine they really have any great ambitions with regard to rail in Britain, I suspect that owning a few TOCs there is just a very easy way for them to make money.

munchkin_utd

flying will always be the primary option to get from Germany to Ireland.

Its such a long distance, that flying at 870kmh will be much much faster than train, even with checkin/ taxiway times adding to the in flight time.

Even to London from beyond Frankfurt will be a trek as for example Munich to Frankfurt is 3 hours on top of the 5 hours from FFM to London.

For an early morning meeting, you'd need to leave Munich at 1 in the Morning to get to London before 8.
Flying, you can get a flight at 6.30 and be in london city 7.30 uk time.

Or just for leisure not wanting to bust yourself by getting up at the crack of dawn, if you get a train at 9am from Munich, you are only in London at 4pm with the most part of the day gone.

dowlingm

Pity instead of regurgitating PR puff the BBC didn't take a hard look at SNCF's machinations on this matter.

oharach

dowlingm wrote: »

Pity instead of regurgitating PR puff the BBC didn't take a hard look at SNCF's machinations on this matter.

Can you expand?

Cookie_Monster

oharach wrote: »

Can you expand?

SNCF don't want Ze Germans in the tunnel and are trying to say that their trains don't meet the safety standards

Jim Martin

The Guardian's take on this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2010/oct/19/high-speed-german-train-stpancras?intcmp=239

icdg

Terrontress wrote: »

German rail firm DB competes for Channel Tunnel route

Interesting article about Deutsche Bahn wanting to extend their reach in to London. I have to say, they are a really fantastic operation. It's interesting to see them looking beyond their borders. I know they already operate in the UK with Chiltern Rail and DB Schencker / EWS but maybe DB branded services operating in the UK might put a firework up the behinds of the UK TOCs.

I don't see how it would. The so-called privatised UK railways is (despite the talk in the early days of liberalisation and open access), really simply the contracting out of the former BRB services to the private sector (or in the case of those ran by Deutsche Bahn, another country's public sector!). The Department for Transport specifies franchises down to specific details. And if a TOC doesn't make money (and many do not) they are heavily subsidised by DfT. Open access hasn't taken off and there are only a handful of open access operators.

The only train operator in the UK that would be put out by this would be Eurostar. And more specifically the SNCF component of the Eurostar consortium, spurred on by their political masters in the French govenment.

I'd love to see them take their operations across the Irish sea too. Let's not forget that what is currently Stena was previously seen as part of British Rail as Sealink. A bit of joined up thinking is needed.

Can't see any private operators* coming in here in the short-to-medium term. Apart from the Government's slowness to implement the EU directives (which Ireland and Northern Ireland have a host of opt-outs from anyway), even if the EU rail package was implemented in full tommorow, the different rail gauge poses a huge technical obstacle. Put simply, you can't enter the rail market in Ireland without making a huge financial investment in re-gauging rolling stock or buying stock specifically for this market. This is without having to deal with Irish Rail for train paths (and believe me, they wouldn't be falling over themselves to give you adequate slots).

* I'm including (as the UK do) other countries public sector operators in this definition, as incorrect as it may be to do so...

trellheim

and suddenly eurostar are mocking up the new velaros in London, oh look DB are running a test train through..... it's just spin and BS until a train runs anyway.

Empire o de Sun

icdg wrote: »

The only train operator in the UK that would be put out by this would be Eurostar. And more specifically the SNCF component of the Eurostar consortium, spurred on by their political masters in the French govenment.

eurostar is now independent of SNCF SNCB and the UK share hold, not sure there.

SNCF are keen to get access too to the tunnel.

etchyed

Empire o de Sun wrote: »

eurostar is now independent of SNCF SNCB and the UK share hold, not sure there.

SNCF are keen to get access too to the tunnel.

Eurostar is majority owned by SNCF. They hold 55%.

dowlingm

Empire o de Sun wrote: »

eurostar is now independent of SNCF SNCB and the UK share hold, not sure there.

SNCF are keen to get access too to the tunnel.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056048975