European Railroad Discussion > Eurostar stake put up for sale by UK govt

Eurostar stake put up for sale by government
The Telegraph
by Szu Ping Chan

13 Oct 2014

> George Osborne has fired the starting gun on the sale of the
> Government’s stake in Eurostar as part of a £20bn privatisation push
> aimed at reducing Britain’s debt pile.
>
> The sale of the high-speed rail operator connecting London and Paris,
> which includes a fleet of 28 trains, is expected to raise around
> £300m for the Treasury. Eurostar is owned by three countries. Britain
> holds a 40pc stake and French state-owned rail operator SNCF has a
> 55pc shareholding, while Belgian counterpart SNCB has 5pc.
>
> The Chancellor said the sale would help to “reform the British
> economy and tackle our debts. Ensuring that we can deliver the best
> quality infrastructure for Britain and the best value for money for
> the taxpayer are key parts of our long-term economic plan. The sale
> proceeds would make an important contribution to the task of reducing
> the public sector debt,” he said...

Full story:

Eurostar stake put up for sale by government



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/14 07:23 by GenePoon.

Now the UK gov't wants to un-do the bailout that saved the train and the tunnel from financial disaster. Not a surprise. The question is how long the private sector can make a go of it before the next bailout.

Hmmm...I wonder if SNCF is going to buy these shares of Eurostar too...?

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As I understand it, the real purpose is to put Eurostar into the UK private sector in order that it can be allowed to bid for operating company franchises.

The hypocrisy involved in allowing European state operators to bid is completely ignored. The Dutch state railway organisation, Abellio, has just been given the Scotrail franchise, while the highly successful operator of East Coast Trains has been barred from bidding because it is state owned.

The likely contribution of £300 million to the public deficit from the sale is utterly trivial.

There you go Amtrack new trains for the NEC and High speed rail in CA

Do you see any change to traffic patters due to estimated sale?

McKey Wrote:
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> Do you see any change to traffic patters due to
> estimated sale?


Absolutely none!

Ok, so this is supposed to be a pure owner change without expected policy changes.

spflow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> McKey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Do you see any change to traffic patters due to
> > estimated sale?
>
>
> Absolutely none!

McKey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ok, so this is supposed to be a pure owner change
> without expected policy changes.
>
> spflow Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > McKey Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Do you see any change to traffic patters due
> to
> > > estimated sale?
> >
> >
> > Absolutely none!

I am afraid this is typical UK government cynicism. Eurostar could have been given any commercial direction that the owners might have wished. However, a successful business approach is in direct conflict with the crass xenophobia currently part of the UK political scene.

One desire may be to distance the UK government from the commercial consequences of its application of a very restrictive approach to immigration checks compared to the rest of continental Europe, to say nothing of an absurd approach to safety in specifying trains for tunnel use. If we had an ordinary train service through the tunnel, Eurostar might have twice the level of traffic.

Or even more according to some magazines. But there are lot of ifs here...

Anyone got a picture of the new Eurostar livery yet?

spflow Wrote:
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> If we had an ordinary train service through
> the tunnel, Eurostar might have twice the level of
> traffic.

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