43 086 at Kensington Olympia. 07/05/96.
The forerunner to Regional Eurostar services were the "Eurostar Connect" workings introduced in the summer of 1995 but sadly the patronage was very low. Poor marketing or BR having more important things to focus on like privatisation are probably the root causes of the failure. It did suit certain quarters though as the new owners of the BR-EPS sector, L&CR (London & Continental Railways) from 01/10/96 could scrap Regional Eurostar and Night Star with some justification. So by 1997 the connect service was dropped along with Regional Eurostar which never started much to the annoyance of MP's in Parliament from the provinces who had agreed to the Channel Tunnel expenditure on the basis it's benefits would reach as far as Scotland, Wales and the South West of England.
Kensington Olympia even had Eurostar staff based here for several years pending the introduction of "Night Star" another still born concept which would have seen trains combined here and diesel traction replaced by a class 92.
The train seen here is 1O86 the 07.37 Manchester Piccadilly to London Waterloo with connections into Eurostar 9I32 12.27 Waterloo International to Brussels Midi.
43 086 at Kensington Olympia. 07/05/96.
The forerunner to Regional Eurostar services were the "Eurostar Connect" workings introduced in the summer of 1995 but sadly the patronage was very low. Poor marketing or BR having more important things to focus on like privatisation are probably the root causes of the failure. It did suit certain quarters though as the new owners of the BR-EPS sector, L&CR (London & Continental Railways) from 01/10/96 could scrap Regional Eurostar and Night Star with some justification. So by 1997 the connect service was dropped along with Regional Eurostar which never started much to the annoyance of MP's in Parliament from the provinces who had agreed to the Channel Tunnel expenditure on the basis it's benefits would reach as far as Scotland, Wales and the South West of England.
Kensington Olympia even had Eurostar staff based here for several years pending the introduction of "Night Star" another still born concept which would have seen trains combined here and diesel traction replaced by a class 92.
The train seen here is 1O86 the 07.37 Manchester Piccadilly to London Waterloo with connections into Eurostar 9I32 12.27 Waterloo International to Brussels Midi.