The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, rebranded as High Speed 1 (HS1), is perceived as a physical and political success and has provided the springboard for further proposed investments in HS2 and even HS3. This paper focuses on traffic impacts of rail services using HS1 and the Channel Tunnel. Using, and u...

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Wedi'i Gadw mewn:
Manylion Llyfryddiaeth
Cyhoeddwyd yn:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/rhcf,
Prif Awduron: Preston, John, Blainey, Simon
Fformat: Article ou chapitre numérique
Iaith:Anglais
Cyhoeddwyd: Revue d’histoire des chemins de fer 2022
Pynciau:
train à grande vitesse
avantages économiques
utilisation du rail
concurrence intermodale
high speed rail
economic benefits
rail usage
intermodal competition
Mynediad Ar-lein:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
id openedition-oai:revues.org:rhcf_2913
record_format openedition
spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:rhcf_2913 https://doi.org/10.4000/rhcf.2913 urn:doi:10.4000/rhcf.2913 en https://journals.openedition.org/rhcf/2913 2022-04-20T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/k9hp All rights reserved The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems? Revue d’histoire des chemins de fer Rails & histoire info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1775-4224 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0996-9403 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/rhcf Preston, John Blainey, Simon train à grande vitesse avantages économiques utilisation du rail concurrence intermodale high speed rail economic benefits rail usage intermodal competition The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, rebranded as High Speed 1 (HS1), is perceived as a physical and political success and has provided the springboard for further proposed investments in HS2 and even HS3. This paper focuses on traffic impacts of rail services using HS1 and the Channel Tunnel. Using, and updating, a series of research and student projects undertaken at the University of Southampton, in combination with publicly available data sets, the traffic impacts of HS1 are re-appraised. It is evident that taken as a whole the usage of rail services on HS1 has been substantially below forecast and that competition from other modes for cross Channel traffic has been more stubborn than expected. Although performing well in terms of market share of the capital to capital market, demand forecasts of Eurostar have had to be revised down on a number of occasions. The performance of through freight services has been even more disappointing. It seems unlikely that these rail services have been an economic success in a purely transport sense, and therefore that the UK’s Channel Tunnel Rail Links cannot be justified on their transport benefits alone but are dependent on wider economic benefits. La liaison ferroviaire du tunnel sous la Manche, rebaptisée High Speed 1 (HS1), est perçue comme un succès technique et politique et a servi de tremplin à de nouvelles propositions d’investissements, notamment pour HS2 et même HS3. Cet article se concentre sur les impacts du trafic ferroviaire utilisant HS1 et le tunnel sous la Manche. Les impacts du trafic de HS1 sont ici réévalués, en utilisant et en mettant à jour une série de recherches et de projets d’étudiants entrepris à l’Université de Southampton, combinée avec des données accessibles au public. Il est évident que, dans l’ensemble, l’utilisation des services ferroviaires sur HS1 a été nettement inférieure aux prévisions, et que la concurrence d’autres modes de transport pour le trafic transmanche a été plus tenace que prévu. Bien qu’elles se soient bien comportées en termes de part de marché par rapport au marché des capitaux, les prévisions de la demande d’Eurostar ont dû être revues à la baisse à plusieurs reprises. Les performances des services de fret ont été encore plus décevantes. Il semble peu probable qu’en termes de transport, ces services ferroviaires aient été une réussite économique ; ainsi, les liaisons ferroviaires du tunnel sous la Manche au Royaume-Uni ne peuvent pas être justifiées par leurs seuls avantages en matière de transport, mais dépendent d’avantages économiques plus larges.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Anglais
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic train à grande vitesse
avantages économiques
utilisation du rail
concurrence intermodale
high speed rail
economic benefits
rail usage
intermodal competition
spellingShingle train à grande vitesse
avantages économiques
utilisation du rail
concurrence intermodale
high speed rail
economic benefits
rail usage
intermodal competition
Preston, John
Blainey, Simon
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
description The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, rebranded as High Speed 1 (HS1), is perceived as a physical and political success and has provided the springboard for further proposed investments in HS2 and even HS3. This paper focuses on traffic impacts of rail services using HS1 and the Channel Tunnel. Using, and updating, a series of research and student projects undertaken at the University of Southampton, in combination with publicly available data sets, the traffic impacts of HS1 are re-appraised. It is evident that taken as a whole the usage of rail services on HS1 has been substantially below forecast and that competition from other modes for cross Channel traffic has been more stubborn than expected. Although performing well in terms of market share of the capital to capital market, demand forecasts of Eurostar have had to be revised down on a number of occasions. The performance of through freight services has been even more disappointing. It seems unlikely that these rail services have been an economic success in a purely transport sense, and therefore that the UK’s Channel Tunnel Rail Links cannot be justified on their transport benefits alone but are dependent on wider economic benefits.
author Preston, John
Blainey, Simon
author_facet Preston, John
Blainey, Simon
author_sort Preston, John
title The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
title_short The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
title_full The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
title_fullStr The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
title_full_unstemmed The Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the UK: is it all that it seems?
title_sort channel tunnel rail link in the uk: is it all that it seems?
publisher Revue d’histoire des chemins de fer
publishDate 2022
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/rhcf
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/rhcf.2913
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/rhcf/2913
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