2.22 There was a view in Union Railways that problems were likely to occur following the opening of Section 1 due to: the teething problems that are normally experienced with newly commissioned railways; and some shortening of the commissioning period. Such problems did not materialise and operational performance of the section has contributed to improved punctuality of Eurostar trains. Union Railways and Eurostar UK reported that the average delay per train17 attributed to unavailability and/or under performance of Section 1 was only 11 seconds in the first year of operation and reduced to just 2 seconds for the first 12 weeks of 2005.
2.23 Union Railways and Network Rail (CTRL), Union Railways' operator of Section 1, attribute the reliability of the Section 1 infrastructure not only to quality workmanship, but also to the decisions to use proven technology and to implement a high maintenance regime. When Union Railways decided that it would only apply tried-and-tested technology to the Link, it looked at the technologies used in those countries that operated high-speed railways. Union Railways chose to adopt French technology after finding it to be both reliable and sufficiently leading edge.
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17 The averages are calculated from the cumulative delays to Eurostar services attributed to infrastructure defects over a reporting period divided by the number of trains that ran during the period.