Altom in conversations to run double -flat trains on the channel tunnel route

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Alstom is in talks to make high-speed and double cover trains through the channel tunnel in a movement that would reduce prices and increase capacity, as the second largest trains in the world aims to benefit from the increase in European railway demand.

CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge said that the company’s trains could increase the traffic on London routes to continental Europe, adding that his Horizon Avelia would be able to go through the tunnel of the underwater channel.

“The double floor has many advantages. It is a high -speed train with the lowest cost per seat and the highest capacity,” he told Financial Times.

New trains can work at more than 300 km/hi Altom He has already signed contracts to provide them with the French Railway Operator SNCF, although deliveries have been repeatedly delayed and not expected until 2026.

New trains that work with Eurostar services must be approved by the operator, a process that can take “some years”, he added. Trains from London to continental Europe should also be approved by regulators and complying with strict security rules in the channel tunnel.

The comments occur in the midst of railway demand in Europe, and as new suppliers seek to compete with Eurostar. Last weekThe governments of the United Kingdom and the Swiss exposed plans to foster direct services between London and Switzerland.

Poupart-Lafarge refused to comment on commercial discussions, but said that “this order would take years.” He added that the business “basically speaks to everyone” and the trains had been designed to operate on all important European lines.

“We can propose (the train) through the tunnel,” he said. “Whether it is Eurostar or other competitors, we will see it.”

Railway suppliers, including Sir Richard Branson’s virgin group and the Italian railway State They are also exploring new services to challenge the 30 -year monopoly of Eurostar on the United Kingdom link to continental Europe.

Ensuring new certified trains for channel tunnel is still one of the biggest challenges for the new proposed participants, according to industry experts.

Alstom has benefited from increasing competition on the routes in continental Europe, signing a contract of 850 million euros to provide and maintain 12 of its double floor trains for proxima, a newly created private operator in France.

Poupart-Lafarge said that the modernization of the European railway infrastructure and the increase in traffic would also benefit the company in the coming years. He has already seen a recent growth in orders in Germany, including a contract of 3.6 million euros to provide commuter trains for the S-Bahn Rheinland network in western Germany.

High demand in Europe helped the company to report an increase in orders of € 19.8 million a year to March 31, an increase of 4.7 percent and slightly ahead of the analysts’ estimates.

The business has also reduced its debt load of 3 million euros by the end of March from 2024 to 434 million euros the following year. Last year, the company was affected by a cash flow warning linked to deliveries and problems provided with the contracts inherited from Bombardier, the Canadian company that it acquired in 2021.

Threw a Capital rating of 1 billion euros In May to help reduce their debt and sell a US signaling business, as well as selling a German railway factory to the Knds defense company, which plans to re -collect the site to build tanks.

Poupart-Lafarge said that his debt challenges “seemed to be water under the bridge”, adding that the company would not try to sell more divisions.

However, the company will not pay a dividend for the year 2024-25, with Poupart-Lafarge saying that it would do it when it was in a “neutral situation in cash”.