Eurostar says there's no room for rivals at its depot – I went to judge for myself
'I think of it as like entering Hagia Sophia for the first time,' says Gareth Williams, Eurostar's General Secretary, as we enter the main shed at Temple Mills.
There's more heavy machinery, fewer intricate mosaics, sure, but I get his point. This depot, fringing the east side of Hackney Marshes in East London, is vast: more than a quarter of a mile long, wide enough to house eight Eurostar trains side-by-side, tall enough to hoist them high up into the air.
For around 400 people, this temple of engineering is the office. Every day of the year (Christmas Day included), Eurostar trains roll in and out for maintenance. Toilets are deep cleaned, lights tinkered, electrics rewired, wheels replaced. Sometimes, damage caused by foxes or wild boars must be attended to.
Nowhere else in the country is equipped to service high-speed trains, and throughout its 18-year history, the Temple Mills depot has slipped happily under the radar (previously, Eurostar's trains were serviced at North Pole depot in West London, before operations moved from Waterloo to St Pancras). But recently, Temple Mills has been making headlines.
In the last 12 months, a suite of rival rail operators – including Virgin Trains, Gemini (a start-up that plans to co-brand with Uber) and the state-owned FS Italiane Group, alongside Spanish operator Evolyn – have launched bids to run trains through the Channel Tunnel.
All of these bids hinge on an important question: where will their trains be stored and serviced? So all eyes, naturally, are on Eurostar's existing depot at Temple Mills, but there is disagreement as to whether there is capacity for any more trains. The future of cross-Channel rail travel lies within these walls.
My tour of Temple Mills begins on a mezzanine walkway overlooking the main shed. On this Wednesday evening there are five trains being serviced across eight roads. Between now and midnight another six will roll in. Eurostar has drivers whose sole job is to move the trains in and out of the facility, a process described as 'train Jenga' and choreographed in a small nerve-centre control room.
Running this depot is a logistical undertaking for one rail firm, let alone two, but this week the Office of Road and Rail gave a preliminary verdict that there's potential capacity at Temple Mills for one more operator 'at most', or for Eurostar to grow.
'Today's report is great news for passengers on both sides of the Channel,' Virgin Trains responded. 'It confirms what we already knew – that there is the capacity Virgin needs at Temple Mills – bringing the Group even closer to unlocking competition on the cross-Channel route.'
Evolyn, Gemini and FS Italiane Group declined the opportunity to respond, but Mark Smith, the Man in Seat 61, says: 'Evolyn/Trenitalia seem front runners as Trenitalia have some Hitachi Frecciarossa 1000s in the pipeline, which could be added to or diverted for this service. The other contenders are starting from scratch.'
The message from Eurostar, however, is quite different.
'The depot is essentially full,' Gareth Williams says, as we walk past a series of pink bikes used by depot staff to travel around the vast complex. 'If you move the furniture about, what the report says is that one, maybe one and a half of these roads will be potentially available.'
It is thought that these 1.5 roads could handle an additional fleet of five trains at most, but Virgin Trains plans to invest in a dozen trains and the other operators are likely to put in orders for at least ten.
Eurostar has 17 e320 trains that are serviced at this depot, while its eight e300s are serviced at Le Landy depot near Paris.
We enter a warehouse store room described as the 'Ikea Zone' with more than 80,000 components stacked on high shelves. Nuts, bolts, windscreens, coffee machines. If another operator moves in, they will need their own warehouse space.
Another canteen. More trains. More blocks in the game of Jenga. This store room is an example of what moving another operator into Temple Mills would entail.
There are other nuances in the discussion of capacity at Temple Mills. There are two 'Cripple Roads' at Temple Mills that house old Eurostar trains that are stripped for parts, and the ORR's initial report suggested the roads in the reception area could plausibly be put to more effective use.
But when the independent regulator says there's potential space for another operator to squeeze in, this is not the same as saying such a squeeze is practically viable for all parties. And anyway – Eurostar has its own plans for expansion.
The French-owned firm plans to invest up to £1.5bn in a new 50-train fleet and new facilities at Temple Mills, as well as increasing capacity at stations including St Pancras International. They say that there are a number of other suitable sites available for competitors, including one at Stratford not far from Temple Mills.
'There's got to be an answer that gives everyone else who is prepared to invest the same opportunity to build their own facilities,' says Williams. 'A solution needs to be found, but it's not going to be found on one road in this shed.'
For passengers, the sooner things get sorted in Temple Mills, the better. Competition would likely mean more destinations on the map.
All of the rival firms have hinted at plans beyond the current Eurostar map featuring Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lille, which has seen stops like Lyon, Marseille and Disneyland Paris crossed out over the years. Potential new routes to Bordeaux, Milan, Zurich and Frankfurt are all on the table.
Even Eurostar agrees competition is no bad thing: 'It's not competition that kills companies, it's stagnation,' says Gareth Williams.
Tickets could become cheaper too. The infrastructure consultancy firm, Steer, predicts that growth in capacity in the Channel Tunnel (from 11m to 35m by 2040) could see ticket prices go down by up to 30 per cent.
There is also the potential that the overall service would be improved as well. Eurostar has had a monopoly on the line since 1994. Any new pretenders will be keen to offer unique services, whether it be quicker Wi-Fi, more leg-room, greater eco-credentials or finer dining options, to set them apart.
For now, that's all hypothetical, as the rail firms have this week been ordered to file final submissions 'at pace' to allow the ORR to make a decision, by October, as to whether they will be granted access to Temple Mills, or if Eurostar will be given the nod to expand.
As I left the Temple Mills complex, something about its carbuncular boxy exterior made me reflect on the Hagia Sophia comparison once again. For the first thousand years of its existence, Istanbul's most iconic holy building was used as a church, before being converted into a mosque in the 1300s, a museum in the 20th century, and more recently, a mosque once again. It is an example of how buildings can be repurposed and adapted through the ages as dynasties rise and fall.
In a matter of months, we will know whether the throwaway comparison was more prescient than Eurostar's General Secretary intended.
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