page_title: Eurostar
section_title: Class 374
hierarchical_section_title: Eurostar / Fleet / Current fleet / Class 374
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: De nieuwe 320 versie van Eurostar in Paris Nord
context_page_description: Eurostar is an international high-speed railway service connecting London with Amsterdam, Brussels, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Disneyland Paris, Lille, Fréthun, Marseille, Paris, and Rotterdam. All its trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated separately by Getlink.
  The London terminus is St Pancras International, the other British calling points are Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent. Intermediate calling points in France are Calais-Fréthun and Lille-Europe, with trains to Paris terminating at Gare du Nord. Trains to Belgium terminate at Midi/Zuid station in Brussels. The only intermediate calling station in the Netherlands is Rotterdam Centraal and trains terminate at Amsterdam Centraal. There are direct services from London to Disneyland Paris at Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy, direct services to southern France, and seasonal direct services to the French Alps in winter.
  The service is operated by eighteen-coach Class 373/1 trains and sixteen-coach Class 374 trains which run at up to 320 kilometres per hour on a network of high-speed lines.
context_section_description: In addition to the announced mid-life update of the existing Class 373 fleet, Eurostar in 2009 reportedly entered prequalification bids for eight new trainsets to be purchased. Any new trains would need to meet the same safety rules governing passage through the Channel Tunnel as the existing Class 373 fleet. The replacement to the Class 373 trains has been decided jointly between the French Transport Ministry and the UK Department for Transport.  The new trains will be equipped to use the new ERTMS in-cab signalling system, due to be fitted to High Speed 1 around 2040.
  On 7 October 2010, it was reported that Eurostar had selected Siemens as preferred bidder to supply 10 Siemens Velaro e320 trainsets at a cost of €600 million (and a total investment of more than £700 million with the refurbishment of the existing fleet included) to operate an expanded route network, including services from London to Cologne and Amsterdam. These would be sixteen-car, 400-metre (1,312 ft) long trainsets built to meet current Channel Tunnel regulations. The top speed will be 320 km/h (199 mph) and they will have 894–950 seats, unlike the current fleet built by the French company Alstom, which has a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph) and a seating capacity of 750. Total traction power will be rated at 16 MW.
  The nomination of Siemens would see it break into the French high-speed market for the first time, as all French and French subsidiary high-speed operators use TGV derivatives produced by Alstom. Alstom attempted legal action to prevent Eurostar from acquiring German-built trains, claiming that the Siemens sets ordered would breach Channel Tunnel safety rules, but this was thrown out of court. Alstom said, after its High Court defeat, that it would "pursue alternative legal options to uphold its position". On 4 November 2010, the company lodged a complaint with the European Commission over the tendering process, which then asked the British government for "clarification". Alstom then announced it had started legal action against Eurostar, again in the High Court in London.
  In July 2011, the High Court rejected Alstom's claim that the tender process was "ineffective", and in April 2012 Alstom said it would call off pending court actions against Siemens. This effectively freed the way for Siemens to build the new Eurostar trains, the first of which were expected to enter service in late 2015.
  On 13 November 2014 Eurostar announced the purchase of an additional seven e320s for delivery in the second half of 2016. At the same time, Eurostar announced the first five e320s from the original order of ten would be available by December 2015, with the remaining five entering service by May 2016. Of the five sets ready by December 2015, three of them were planned to be used on London-Paris and London-Brussels routes.
caption: Class 374 at Gare du Nord in Paris.
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