Eurostar on the brink?

[anonymous-user]

Eurostar on the brink of collapes, says:-
Mail, FT, Express, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph......

So a company owned by the French SNCF (55%), Belgian NMBS (5%), Canadian CDPQ (30%) and US based Hermes (10%), would like the nice people of the UK to give it a 'bail out' so that it can remain solvent and keep paying dividends to the shareholders. But this is perfectly OK because covid and stuff.

Remember the "level playing field" that the EU wanted that includes the prohibition on State Aid?

Is it still 'state aid' if we give millions of pounds to the French and a Canadian pension fund?

[towser44]

Saw this the other day, why aren't the french govt. paying for their share of the stake they own, given that SNCF is state owned?

[Magooagain]

The uk needs the tunnel more than Europe?

[anonymous-user]

50/50 i’d say
My friends use it weekly to commute to work in EU

[anonymous-user]

Magooagain said:

The uk needs the tunnel more than Europe?

Possibly. For us it gives access to the whole of Europe and beyond. For them it only gives acces to the UK.

[anonymous-user]

brickwall said:

I’d let em go bust.

The infrastructure and physical assets are there - so likely would get phoenix’d at some point in the future. Equity and debt-holders take a big haircut. Capitalism in action.

[towser44]

What would be the impact on the actual tunnel? I think that's a separate entity isn't it, would the loss of Eurostar services impact that financially?

[randlemarcus]

I'm with Brickwall on this one, with the only caveat that that would mean too much cash going to the insolvency lot

[anonymous-user]

The actual tunnel is owned by Getlink (after a reverse reach-around that stuffed UK shareholders) and is listed on the Euronext exchange. Perhaps the UK tax payers should give them some free money at the same time, just for old times’ sake, obvs.

[gazza285]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Magooagain said:

The uk needs the tunnel more than Europe?

Possibly. For us it gives access to the whole of Europe and beyond. For them it only gives acces to the UK.

Slower than an aeroplane, quicker than a ferry, but it isn’t the only way. If I’m taking a vehicle into Europe I prefer the ferry, gives me a break, and doesn’t stink.

[RickSanchez]

Be sad to see it go, used it a few times and found it a pretty decent service

The french should bail them out but haven’t

They have been hit hard due to Covid, down to about 1% ridership, no doubt they will bounce back passenger wise once all over if they survive but operational costs for staff, track access, leasing units, maintenance etc etc will be hefty and they will need a certain % of each train full just to break even. It’s never going to happen in this climate

190million passenger journeys made since they started, didn’t realise they carried so many, around 11million a year, money to be made with those trains full!

[valiant]

If it goes bust it won’t mean the end of high speed trains between Blighty and Euroland.

Pre-pandemic, Eurostar was pretty profitable with good loadings on their trains and is generally still quicker to go from city centre to city centre than flying and fares weren’t too unreasonable.

Eurostar as a company may go pop but it’ll be snapped up by someone who can keep a skeleton service running until things start to return to normal.

All we’ll notice in the long run is maybe different branding but even that may not change as it’s a pretty recognisable brand and totally associated with cross channel train travel.

[Diderot]

I lived in France for 5 years in the 90s when it first came into service. Have used it hundreds of times over the last 25 years or so, Brilliant service. Who in their right mind would want to take a ferry to Calais?

Let's just take tonight for argument's sake. Force 8, chunky enough sea in the channel, or a nice calm and much faster crossing via the tunnel.

[320d is all you need]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Magooagain said:

The uk needs the tunnel more than Europe?

Possibly. For us it gives access to the whole of Europe and beyond. For them it only gives acces to the UK.

Eurotunnel I believe is profitable. Eurotunnel on the other hand .... !!

[untakenname]

They should have never got rid of Hoverspeed, was much quicker for those living in the S/E taking half an hour to cross the channel.
The trains were a retrograde step until the line speed upgrade plus you also needed to come into Waterloo which caused issues due to the reliability of the connecting trains.

[williamp]

So Eurostar are the passenger trains, not the tunnel/freight.

A great service. always worth the 1st class upgrade as the booze was flowing snd you'd arrive in paris pissed. And quicker, door to door from leicester to central Paris then flying. Good TGV connection too.

The freight/le mans driving would be unaffected as this is Eurotunnel. Brits built the locamotives, French the wagons, Belgians the Toilets. True..

[glazbagun]

brickwall said:

I’d let em go bust.

The infrastructure and physical assets are there - so likely would get phoenix’d at some point in the future. Equity and debt-holders take a big haircut. Capitalism in action.

[Wombat3]

Eurostar, not to be confused with Eurotunnel

[poo at Paul's]

I used them in Feb last year and got real sick going to Brussels, vomiting everywhere in hotel in early hours. I'd only eaten at St Pancreas, then on train.
Dirty trains full of dirtier people!!

Edited by poo at Paul's on Wednesday 20th January 01:06

[Wills2]

Used it a few times it's very good in my experience, but I don't see the point of a bail out for it, put it into administration and let someone buy it and start again, if the shareholders want to keep it afloat they can re capitalise it instead.