Double-Deck Trains

[rogerfarnworth]

It was announced on 22nd October 2025 that the lines through the Channel Tunnel would see double-decker trains by 2031. An order was placed for their construction and delivery in October 2025.

This article takes a look at the history of double-deck trains and carriages.

The featured image for this article shows what one of these trains would look like in Eurostar’s grey livery. The fully electric fleet of trains will be named Eurostar Celestia, which comes from the Latin word caelestis, meaning ‘heavenly’. The colour of the train has not yet been decided, but the current colour of Eurostar trains is grey, dark blue and yellow. Each train would be 200m long. Currently two are run together making an entire service 400m long. Double-decker trains don’t have twice as many seats as a single-deckers though, just because there needs to be room for interior steps, but there would be a fifth more seats. This means an increase from just under 900 seats on the current service to just over a thousand.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/05/04/double-decker-trains/

[sirenwerks]

I'm amazed at how quickly they can turn this around, but then again double decker cars aren't a novelty in Europe. Yet Amtrak seems stymied at the notion of replacing its Superliner cars.

[nkalanaga]

The problem with replacing the Superliners is accessibility.  For the upper level to be accessible, under the ADA law, they would almost have to use elevators.  Those would both take space and add complexity, so Amtrak is likely to go with single-level cars.

Just my opinion, but I think they should join VIA Rail and design a common North American passenger car.  The interiors wouldn't have to be the same, but make sure the cars themselves are compatible.  We had that before the Superliners.

[learmoia]

Just my opinion, but I think they should join VIA Rail and design a common North American passenger car.  The interiors wouldn't have to be the same, but make sure the cars themselves are compatible.  We had that before the Superliners.

Just keep building more variants of the Siemens or Viewliner II cars..  adding Sleepers, and Sky Lounge (single level dome car like the Seaboard had)..

Sometimes I get frustrated that we had all this stuff 75-100 years ago (Standardized High Speed passenger fleets, Light Rail, ect)
Then we tore it all up in the name of modernization to hiways and airplanes..
Now we're sending hundreds of billions to rebuild it..