Eurostar International LimitedCompanies House extract company no 2462001
Eurostar International Limited formerly Eurostar (UK) Limited formerly European Passenger Services Limited (EIL) is the

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...

operating the international

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...

train services between

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

via the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

. Eurostar was previously operated by three separate companies in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, but this structure was replaced by EIL as a new single management company on 1 September 2010. EIL is owned by

Eurostar Group Eurostar Group is a holding company founded by SNCF Voyageurs, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, SNCB, and Federated Hermes Infrastructure in 2022. It aims at merging the operations of Thalys and Eurostar high-speed rail services betwee ...

. Eurostar International is the largest customer of

Getlink Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel, is a European public company based in Paris that manages and operates the infrastructure of the Channel Tunnel between England and France, operates the Eurotunnel Shuttle train service, and earns revenue ...

, the owner of the Channel Tunnel.

History

Eurostar International was formed in 1990 as European Passenger Services (EPS), as the division of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

responsible for the UK section of the

operation. Eurostar trains began operating on 14 November 1994, with EPS,

NMBS/SNCB french: Société nationale des chemins de fer belgesgerman: Nationale Gesellschaft der Belgischen Eisenbahnen , type = Statutory corporation , industry = Rail Transport , foundation = 1926 , founder = Government o ...

and

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

were each responsible for the running of Eurostar services in their own territory. On 1 April 1994, EPS signed a fixed-rate track access contract with

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

lasting until 29 July 2052 as part of the plans for

Regional Eurostar Regional Eurostar was a planned Eurostar train service from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom beyond London. The services would have been run using a fleet of seven ''North of London'', 14-coach British Rail Class 373/3 trai ...

services. The

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

saw ownership of EPS transferred to

London and Continental Railways London and Continental Railways (LCR) is a property development company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom for developing former railway land. The company was originally established in 1994 as a private consortium to own European Pa ...

(LCR) in 1996, which is a property development company owned by the

Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...

. This was part of the contract agreed with the British Government for LCR to build and operate

High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...

(HS1) between London and the

. The company was renamed Eurostar (UK) Limited (EUKL) and was to use the income from EUKL to help finance the HS1 project. Following financial assistance from the government in 1998, LCR was forced to appoint a management contract for EUKL. Bids for the contract were submitted by

Virgin Rail Group Virgin Rail Group was formed by the Virgin Group to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail in the late 1990s. United Kingdom operations Origins Virgin bid for a number of franchises, includ ...

and Inter-Capital and Regional Rail, a consortium of

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

(40%), SNCF (35%), NMBS/SNCB (15%) and

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

(10%). The latter was awarded the contract which was to run from 1998 until 2010. In January 2009, after the completion of HS1, the UK's

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

took control of LCR and announced its intention to put both HS1 and EUKL up for sale.

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

expressed an interest in EUKL but no sale materialised. On 31 December 2009, EUKL was renamed Eurostar International Limited (EIL). On 1 September 2010, the three national

operators merged into EIL as a single company with a single management structure. Following this change, the ICRR management contract for the UK business was terminated. Once all Eurostar assets were transferred to EIL, the holdings in the company were amended to LCR (40%), NMBS/SNCB (5%) and SNCF (55%). LCR sold a 30-year concession to operate HS1 in November 2010 to a Canadian consortium of Borealis Infrastructure and

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (french: Régime de retraite des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario) is an independent organization responsible for administering defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the Canadian pr ...

for £2.1bn. EIL then paid access charges to the consortium to operate Eurostar trains on HS1. On 4 December 2013, the UK Government announced it was looking to sell LCR's 40% stake in EIL. In January 2014, in a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with

Keolis Keolis is a multinational transportation company that operates public transport systems. The company manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus and funicular services. ...

, Eurostar was shortlisted to bid for the

InterCity East Coast InterCity East Coast is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom from London King's Cross to Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. It was ...

franchise in the United Kingdom. However the franchise was awarded to

Virgin Trains East Coast Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) (legal name East Coast Main Line Company Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the N ...

. In June 2014, the UK's 40% shareholding in EIL was transferred from LCR to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

, and a sale process was launched on 13 October 2014. In March 2015, the Treasury announced it had sold the stake to

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. CDPQ was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly, under the go ...

(CDPQ) (30%) and Hermes Infrastructure (10%) for £585m. It also confirmed agreement to redeem its preference share in EIL for £172m, raising £757m in total. In 2020, Eurostar shareholders unanimously appointed Jacques Damas as chief executive officer, following news that previous CEO Mike Cooper will join Arriva as Group CEO, and facing the challenges of exiting the COVID-19 crisis and leading it towards future developments. In April 2022, Eurostar International's ownership was transferred into a new holding company named

, along with THI Factory. The previous shareholders now own a part of the new holding company.

Fleet

EIL is the owner of the

Class 373 The British Rail Class 373 or TGV TMST, sometimes referred to as Eurostar e300, is a French designed and Anglo-French built electric multiple unit train that is used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services from the United Kingdom t ...

and

British Rail Class 374 The British Rail Class 374, also referred to as the Eurostar e320, is a type of electric multiple unit passenger train used on Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel to serve destinations beyond the core routes to Paris and Brussels. The ...

sets.

References

External links

Company website
{{SNCF Group, state=collapsed Eurostar Holding companies of the United Kingdom Railway companies of the United Kingdom Railway companies established in 1990 1990 establishments in England