Nightstar. (a stillborn concept ?)
Lounge & Service/Staff Car no. 61 70 89-90 001-8.
These coaches were designed to be marshalled between the sleeing cars and the reclining seat cars in a train formation and contained a disabled persons sleeper berth with accomodation for a companion, train managers office, border control staff office, parcels room and a louge with bar for sleeper passengers.
Possibly the largest 'white elephant' to ever grace the UK rail network in recent times. NIGHTSTAR the overnight passenger services arm of Eurostar UK never went into service despite over half of the £139million coaching stock fleet being completed before the project was put on hold in 1997.
The failure of Nightstar was attributed to the rapid rise of the 'bucket price' cheap airlines and a slump in overnight train use within mainland Europe. It was further compounded by the UK rail network being privatised at the same time thus shunting Nightstar into the 'too difficult box'. By the end of 1996 LCR (London & Continental Railway) knew Nightstar was dead in the water with only one route of the original four still considered viable. The autumn of 1996 saw the plug pulled on the final train namely a Waterloo to Frankfurt option with portions for Amsterdam or Dortmund. Before the demise the new services even appeared in the Working Timetable for 1996-7. They were:
1O62 18.39 Plymouth to Paris Nord (with portion ex Swansea).
1I62 19.53 London Waterloo to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf (and portion for Dortmund).
1I68 21.23 London Waterloo to Amsterdam CS.
1I72 22.23 London Waterloo to Amsterdam CS.
1074 20.00 Glasgow Central to Paris Nord (with portion ex Manchester).
The myth Nightstar might still run to save political face was maintained until 2003 when the Rail Regulator finally cancelled the overnight train paths but by then the stock had already been sold to VIA-Rail in Canada at a knock down price. All that was left of the project were the EPS owned class 92's and class 37/6's along with 5 Mk3 generator cars. The 37's ended up sold to DRS in the UK and the class 92's after some initial common user use with EWS went into storage to eventually be sold to Eurotunnel some 10 years later after prolonged storage at Crewe.
Nightstar. (a stillborn concept ?)
Lounge & Service/Staff Car no. 61 70 89-90 001-8.
These coaches were designed to be marshalled between the sleeing cars and the reclining seat cars in a train formation and contained a disabled persons sleeper berth with accomodation for a companion, train managers office, border control staff office, parcels room and a louge with bar for sleeper passengers.
Possibly the largest 'white elephant' to ever grace the UK rail network in recent times. NIGHTSTAR the overnight passenger services arm of Eurostar UK never went into service despite over half of the £139million coaching stock fleet being completed before the project was put on hold in 1997.
The failure of Nightstar was attributed to the rapid rise of the 'bucket price' cheap airlines and a slump in overnight train use within mainland Europe. It was further compounded by the UK rail network being privatised at the same time thus shunting Nightstar into the 'too difficult box'. By the end of 1996 LCR (London & Continental Railway) knew Nightstar was dead in the water with only one route of the original four still considered viable. The autumn of 1996 saw the plug pulled on the final train namely a Waterloo to Frankfurt option with portions for Amsterdam or Dortmund. Before the demise the new services even appeared in the Working Timetable for 1996-7. They were:
1O62 18.39 Plymouth to Paris Nord (with portion ex Swansea).
1I62 19.53 London Waterloo to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf (and portion for Dortmund).
1I68 21.23 London Waterloo to Amsterdam CS.
1I72 22.23 London Waterloo to Amsterdam CS.
1074 20.00 Glasgow Central to Paris Nord (with portion ex Manchester).
The myth Nightstar might still run to save political face was maintained until 2003 when the Rail Regulator finally cancelled the overnight train paths but by then the stock had already been sold to VIA-Rail in Canada at a knock down price. All that was left of the project were the EPS owned class 92's and class 37/6's along with 5 Mk3 generator cars. The 37's ended up sold to DRS in the UK and the class 92's after some initial common user use with EWS went into storage to eventually be sold to Eurotunnel some 10 years later after prolonged storage at Crewe.