European Railroad Discussion > Changes in Eurostar

Some recent posts asked about the new Eurostar trains.

Making a booking today from London to Paris for next month I was given seat reservations both ways on a new  Siemens train. It reminded me that I had taken  some pics at St Pancras after a recent domestic trip in December which show (from left to right) a new train, an old train refurbished, and one in its original condition.

A short video also shows the latest fad for providing pianos for the public to play. These are now everywhere in main European terminals, do you have the same in North America?

Usual apologies for lousy iphone quality!

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It is amazing to think that the Eurostar is old enough to need replacement! 

There may be others but the piano that my dad and I really were impressed by was at LAUPT in Los Angeles. The guy who was playing looked like he could have been homeless but he played beautifully. I didn't think to take a picture or video. 

Jim

Eurostar is being replaced not on the basis of age, but the fact it's non standard and with the construction of HS1 off the peg designs, which don't have to cater for our restricted loading gauge, can be used.

86235 Wrote:
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> Eurostar is being replaced not on the basis of
> age, but the fact it's non standard and with the
> construction of HS1 off the peg designs, which
> don't have to cater for our restricted loading
> gauge, can be used.

Quite!
Also I don't know how many are actually going to be withdrawn rather than refurbished, as the new trains are to some extent additional to the fleet rather than simple replacements.

They've got a public piano at my small-town airport in Oregon. I haven't seen pianos in transit terminals anywhere else in the US.

Tor the Human

Torisgod Wrote:
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> They've got a public piano at my small-town
> airport in Oregon. I haven't seen pianos in
> transit terminals anywhere else in the US.
>
> Tor the Human

Off topic, but there's one off-and-on at Union Station in Toronto, Canada (subject to the ongoing construction in the Great Hall.)

newtonville150 Wrote:
...

> Off topic, but there's one off-and-on at Union
> Station in Toronto, Canada (subject to the ongoing
> construction in the Great Hall.)

It first appeared at the time of the Pan Am Games but seems to have disappeared.  I haven't seen it for several weeks.  As I recall it was a baby grand and was shifted around several times between the Great Hall and the western concourse by Gate 3 (formerly gate 1).

How about pianos ON trains. Orient Express has one. The American Orient Express did as well. There was an electric organ on the Queenslander complete with sing along. And way back in the day, Amtrak Sightseer Lounge Cars had them in the downstairs area but no one to play other than passengers.They didn't last long. 

The headline fooled me to think that the British shares of the Eurostar were finally sold...any word on that?

& thanks for the views at St Pancras, London, U.K.!

McKey Wrote:
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> The headline fooled me to think that the British
> shares of the Eurostar were finally sold...any
> word on that?
>
> & thanks for the views at St Pancras, London,
> U.K.!

Yes the UK share  of 40% was sold last May, mainly to the Quebec Teachers pension fund. At least it wasn't to the Chinese, but it was dressed up as being in the public interest. Don't ask me how!

Quebec Teachers pension fund? At the mercy of ingenious and always playing SNCF owning 55% of the shares? But thinking the other way round SNCF has always known how to run business, and managed to keep its power outside France (even against Italian FS). So maybe here is a silver lining too.


 

 

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McKey Wrote:
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> But thinking the other way round SNCF
> has always known how to run business, and managed
> to keep its power outside France (even against
> Italian FS). So maybe here is a silver lining
> too.
SNCF is very good at protecting its home business from the winds of competition but where they have been forced to confront competition, as they have for freight they have been rather inept.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> How about pianos ON trains. Orient Express has
> one. The American Orient Express did as well.
> There was an electric organ on the Queenslander
> complete with sing along. And way back in the day,
> Amtrak Sightseer Lounge Cars had them in the
> downstairs area but no one to play other than
> passengers.They didn't last long. 

The Blå Tåget (Blue Train) that runs Thurs - Mon between Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden, has a piano in the bar car (scroll through the pictures to find it): http://www.blataget.com/restaurang

Just saw this a few minutes ago - http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/04/st-pancras-elton-john-surprises-london-commuters-with-piano-performance

I must direct our friends from North America to this newspaper site, as being more balanced, honest, thoughtful and trustworthy than most others!

Here is a picture of the Blå Tåget - with couches / sofas and piano in one of the cars :) 

How do they manage to keep it tuned? This is definitely a hard thing to achieve.

pennengineer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Blå Tåget (Blue Train) that runs Thurs - Mon
> between Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden, has a
> piano in the bar car (scroll through the pictures
> to find it): http://www.blataget.com/restaurang

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To keep in tune they must use a Yamaha Clavinova (or something similar) - I've got one and it's really great for proper piano playing!

Forget the pianos -- I am just in awe at what modern, efficient intercity rail looks like outside of North America, where we are solidly stuck in the auto age.  Last trip I made on Eurostar was when it still went to Waterloo, and even that was impressive.

And outside of Eurostar, just a TGV from Paris to where most of my relatives live in Nantes - 2 hours plus a few minutes, hourly or better, high speed half of the distance, and still pretty damn fast for the rest of the journey.  Equivalent to traveling from here in Louisville, Kentucky to Chicago via Indianapolis.  Its a 5-hour drive, easily 2 hours by air if you factor in getting to/from the airports at SDF and MDW, and it takes over five hours on a good day by rail on the Hoosier State if CSX and You Pee decide to play nice.

Hey, and the new Siemens equipment looks awfully sharp!

timecruncher