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Regional Eurostar


Regional Eurostar was the name given to plans to operate Eurostar train services from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom beyond London. The services would have been run using a fleet of seven North of London, 14-coach British Rail Class 373/2 trainsets.

When the Channel Tunnel was first announced in the 1980s, it was part of the proposals to operate high-speed rail services through it on both sides of the English Channel with a substantial network envisaged. This was gradually reduced to a core service, along dedicated TGV-style high-speed lines, between the three capital cities, regional daytime services to Glasgow Central via the East Coast Main Line and Manchester Piccadilly via the West Coast Main Line, and Nightstar sleeper services to the same cities as well as Plymouth and Cardiff via the Great Western Main Line.

A depot for the regional Eurostar services, Manchester International Depot, was constructed at Longsight in Manchester by London and Continental Railways. A large Eurostar-branded sign was attached to the outside of this depot which ambitiously proclaimed to passing train passengers "le Eurostar habite ici" (French for "the Eurostar lives here"), despite the fact that the depot was empty and unused; the sign remained in place for several years after the Regional Eurostar project was abandoned.


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