Temple Mills Depot

Last updated
Temple Mills Depot
Location
Location Leyton, London, England
Characteristics
Owner HS1 Limited
Type EMU
History
Opened2 October 2007;18 years ago (2007-10-02)

Temple Mills Depot, also known as Temple Mills International (TMI) [1] and the Eurostar Engineering Centre, is a railway depot in Leyton in East London.

Contents

History

Construction of a new depot for Eurostar operations, to replace North Pole Depot, was approved by the UK Government on 15 November 2004. North Pole had served as the maintenance depot for the Eurostar's fleet of Class 373s since opening in 1994, but was inaccessible to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (High Speed 1), over which all Eurostar services would run from November 2007. [2] [3]

Capacity allocation (2025)

The Temple Mills Depot is crucial for operation (housing and maintenance of the trains) on High Speed 1, as it is the only British railway depot accessible to (high speed) trains with the larger continental European loading gauge.

There are a number of potential competitors for high speed trains between London and the European continent (Paris and Brussels): Virgin Group, Gemini Trains (with Uber) and a partnership between FS and Evolyn, but the biggest problem for competitors is to secure space to house and maintain high-speed trains. Eurostar says the Temple Mills depot is full and can only accommodate its own growth plans, with a £70m investment. [4]

Virgin and Evolyn remarked in November 2024 at an industry event in the Houses of Parliament, that Eurostar had not agreed access to Temple Mills depot. The companies later appealed to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to assess the available capacity. [5]

This led to a report being published in March 2025, commissioned by ORR, confirming some capacity at Temple Mills depot could be made available. [6] [7] The ORR invited applicants to submit proposals before a ruling.

On 30 October 2025, ORR announced they had approved Virgin Trains to begin Channel Tunnel operations, sharing Temple Mills Depot with Eurostar within the next five years. [8] [9]

References

  1. ↑ "Temple Mills International Depot" (PDF). High Speed 1 . Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  2. ↑ "Temple Mills Depot". Kent Rail. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  3. ↑ "Eurostar maintenance depot opens in east London". Rail Technology Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Topham, Gwyn (2025-07-23). "Eurostar calls for 'credible' Channel rail strategy as monopoly decision looms". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-10-25.
  5. ↑ Georgiadis, Philip (20 November 2024). "Dispute over London depot threatens plans to break Eurostar monopoly". Financial Times .
  6. ↑ "Rail regulator says some capacity can be made available at Eurostar depot". Office of Rail and Road. 31 March 2025.
  7. ↑ "New rail companies challenge Eurostar: Could ticket prices drop?". euronews. 2025-04-02. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
  8. ↑ Edwards, Charlotte (30 October 2025). "Virgin set to challenge Eurostar on Channel Tunnel route". BBC News. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  9. ↑ Tobyn, Stephanie (2025-10-30). "Applications for access to Temple Mills International Depot" (PDF). Letter to Antonio Urda, Adrian Quine, Gareth Williams, Phil Whittingham, and Marco Caposciutti. Retrieved 2025-10-30.

51°33′36″N0°01′22″W / 51.56008°N 0.02276°W / 51.56008; -0.02276

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