Eurotunnel ready to welcome many more trains under the Channel

As it approaches three decades of existence, Eurostar’s monopoly on passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel may soon be over. Eurotunnel, the main component of the privately-owned Getlink group, has just made a major investment in its 50-kilometre infrastructure, in cooperation with General Electric, to boost and smooth out its electrical power. The idea is to get more trains through per hour, even at peak times.

The message will be received loud and clear by some European railway companies, such as Spain’s Renfe. Renfe has already announced plans to run high-speed trains to London from the continent, in direct competition with SNCF (which has a majority stake in Eurostar). Or perhaps tomorrow the Italian company Trenitalia, already present on the Paris-Lyon-Milan route.

A reservoir of capacity
“We are giving ourselves back capacity on the electrical network. We have a reservoir of capacity that we want and that we are going to exploit: at present, the tunnel is only used at 50 or 60% of its potential. We are going to make a huge leap in the quality of the current, to be able to add 50% more trains”, explains Yann Leriche, who succeeded Jacques Gounon at the helm of the Getlink group in 2020, to “Les Echos”.

Source : Les Echos.

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