Date: 12/10/2011

British taxpayers are spending up to £400,000 a year to help maintain French trains in the aftermath of a failed European transport project. The aborted rail scheme cost British taxpayers more than £180million but the Department for Transport continues to fund the failure. It spent “between £300,000 and £400,000 last year” on mothballed facilities for the aborted Regional Eurostar project that would have provided a direct link between cities such as Manchester and Glasgow to Paris. Seven trains were built for the Regional Eurostar but they were passed to the French train operator SNCF because its high-speed link between Paris and Lille was short of carriages. A depot in Manchester to maintain the trains is still the responsibility of London & Continental Railways, a firm which is wholly owned by the DfT. [From Mark Bartlett]

External links

Taxpayers spend £400k a year to maintain French trains

Telegraph

British taxpayers are spending up to £400,000 a year to help maintain French trains in the aftermath of a failed European transport project.

Related images

One of the short lived Regional eurostar sets, on the GNER 14.35 White Rose to Leeds, awaits its departure time at Kings Cross on 23 July 2005.
Location: Kings Cross
Company: London to Peterborough (Great Northern Railway)
23/07/2005 John Furnevel