Alstom in conversations to operate two -storey trains on the channel tunnel track

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Alstom is holding two -storey high -speed trains through the channel’s tunnel in a move that reduces prices and increases capacity, as the second largest train maker in the world seeks to benefit from increased demand for European railways.

CEO Henry Popart Lavartin said that the company’s trains can increase road traffic from London to the mainland of Europe, adding that his horizon in Avelia will be able to run through the Undersea channel tunnel.

“The double dish train has a lot of advantages. It is a very high -speed train with the lowest cost per seat and higher capacity,” he told the Financial Times.

New trains can operate more than 300 km/h and Alstom He has already signed contracts to provide them with the French railway operator SNCF, despite the delay of deliveries over and over again and is not expected until 2026.

He added that any new trains that work on Eurostar services need to be approved by the operator, a process that can take “some years”. The trains from London to Europe will need to be approved by the organizers and compliance with the strict safety rules of the channel’s tunnel.

Comments come amid the high demand for railways in Europe and since new service providers seek to compete with Eurostar. Last weekBritish governments and Swiss governments have set plans to encourage direct services between London and Switzerland.

Poupart-LAFARGE refused to comment on commercial discussions, but said, “Such will take years.” He added that the work “speaks mainly with everyone” and that the trains have been designed to work on all the main European lines.

“We can suggest (the train) through the tunnel,” he said. “Whether Eurostar or other competitors, we will see.”

Railways gunmen including Sir Richard Branson Virgin and Italian state -owned railways They also explore new services for the 30 -year -old Eurostar monopoly on the UK link to continental Europe.

Industry experts said that securing new trains approved to run through the channel tunnel is still one of the biggest challenges for the proposed new expatriates.

Alstom has benefited from increasing competition on roads on the mainland of Europe, as it signed a contract worth 850 million euros to provide 12 of its double trains for Proxima, a newly created special operator in France.

POUPART-LAFARGE said that the update of the European railway infrastructure and increased traffic will benefit the company in the coming years. It has already seen a recent growth in demands in Germany, including a 3.6 billion euros contract to provide passenger trains for the S-Bahn Rheinland network in West Germany.

The strong demand in Europe helped to report the increase in requests to 19.8 billion euros a year until March 31, an increase of 4.7 percent, and the analysts estimated a little.

The company also reduced the burden of its debts from 3 billion euros at the end of March 2024 to 434 million euros the following year. Last year, the company was threatened by a warning of the cash flow associated with deliveries and slow and expected issues with the contracts inherited from Bombardier, the Canadian company that acquired it in 2021.

Launch a Raise 1 billion euros In May to help reduce its debts and sell it from the American signal, in addition to selling a German railway factory to the defense company KNDs, which plans to re -display the site to build the tanks.

Poupart-LAFARGE said that debt challenges “look like water under the bridge,” adding that the company will not seek to sell any other sections.

However, the company will not pay profits for the fiscal year 2024-25, as Poupart-LAFARGE says it will do so when he was in a “neutral cash situation”.