THE growing controversy over the use of Siemens trains in the Channel Tunnel is poised to move to a British court.
A German ICE set was displayed at St Pancras International yesterday as an overture to future Deutsche Bahn services to London, but Alstom and the French government are claiming that the ICEs do not comply with Channel Tunnel safety rules.
The revelation that a British court could be asked to intervene has come from Eurostar chairman Richard Brown, who had been invited to St Pancras to see the German train.
He said that Alstom had threatened court action in Britain but declined to give any details, although he did confirm that Eurostar's legal advisors have become involved.
Eurostar is proceeding with an order for ten Siemens Velaro trains worth a reported 525 million Euros, which it wants to introduce on new routes in 2014 to cities such as Geneva, Lyon and Amsterdam.
Mr Brown is standing by his board's decision to buy the trains. He said: “There is no safety issue. We followed a thorough and comprehensive procurement process in line with EU regulation and with board support.”
Deutsche Bahn, too, is denying that its plans put safety in question. DB Chief Executive Rüdiger Grube told his audience at St Pancras that a test evacuation of 300 passengers from an ICE in the Channel Tunnel on Sunday had been ‘highly successful’.
The official start date for German services between London, the Netherlands and Germany is December 2013, but hints were being dropped by the German party at St Pancras that an earlier launch is being considered.
German transport minister Peter Ramsauer said: “We are thinking of the Olympics”, perhaps implying that DB could be running to St Pancras from May 2012.
The German operator is proposing to run three 400m sets from London each day, which would divide at Brussels and then go forward as two separate trains to Rotterdam and Amsterdam on one route and Cologne and Frankfurt on the other.
The journey time to Frankfurt would be about five hours.
Richard Brown of Eurostar has always welcomed the prospect of competition on the international route from London. He told reporters at St Pancras: “We welcome Deutsche Bahn’s plans. We want them to help us grow the rail passenger market together.”
Rail unions, however, are also opposing any relaxation to Channel Tunnel rules, which are currently the subject of consultation.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow has warned: “RMT will fight any watering down of safety standards on the Channel Tunnel High Speed Rail Link – if those standards are tampered with simply in order to appease EU diktat it would be a major scandal with potentially lethal consequences.”