High Speed Rail In Britain Enters New Era As ICE Prepares To Start Service

Online, October 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Rail passengers will be able to travel direct from London to Germany and the Netherlands from 2013 under plans unveiled by Germany's state rail company today after it completed a dry run through the Channel tunnel.

Deutsche Bahn is taking on Eurostar, which operates services to Paris and Brussels, by preparing to run 200mph trains from the capital to Frankfurt, Cologne, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The company offered travellers a glimpse of the new entrant by bringing a state-of-the-art Intercity-Express (ICE) train into St Pancras station yesterday following safety tests under the tunnel involving 300 volunteers.

"The new services to London are not only a milestone for us. They are a milestone for the entire European railway sector," said DB's chairman, Dr Rudiger Grube.

Theresa Villiers, the transport minister, said she expected the service to grab market share from airlines operating the same routes, following the example of Eurostar, which now controls three-quarters of the air-rail market between London and the French and Belgian capitals, carrying 9 million passengers annually.

"The experience of high-speed rail across the rest of Europe shows that these services are really attractive for a lot of people and will take a lot of share from the airline market."

However, new safety tests will be needed before DB officially launches the service because it plans to use an updated version of the ICE model.

DB said it would run three return journeys a day, with trains from London splitting at Brussels to reach Amsterdam or Frankfurt. DB said it expected the journey from London to Frankfurt to last just over five hours, with both London to Cologne and London to Amsterdam taking four hours.

Villiers admitted that some of the journey times were a little outside the four-hour envelope that rail executives normally cite as a precondition for competing with airlines, but said DB's plans were "really positive" for Britain's burgeoning high-speed rail market. "The journey times are slightly longer but I believe that DB has got a good project here."