DB unveils plans for London services

摘要

St Pancras International played host to a German InterCity Express train on 19 October as part of a publicity exercise to flag up Deutsche Bahn's (DB - German Rail) plan to introduce direct services from London to Frankfurt in 2013. The train came in via the Channel tunnel, hauled to London by a pair of Eurotunnel Krupp MaK locomotives as ICEs are not yet approved for operation in the UK. As part of exercises to test the emergency evacuation of the ICE-type trains in the Channel tunnel, two of the existing Class 406 multisystem ICE3M sets were taken to Calais (towed there by DB subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail) and used in evacuation tests in the tunnel. Whilst in France the trains were allowed to work under their own power on the Eurotunnel system from the Eurotunnel depot to the tunnel entrance, for the benefit of the French and German media.