Eurostar VKM

[XAM2175]

Forgive me if this is a bit odd - I've been looking through the current list of Vehicle Keeper Markings checking a different operator and noticed in passing that Eurostar's is shown as being "GB-EU", and that it's currently 'blocked' (as opposed to 'in use' or 'revoked'). It's the same too in the reference copy of the 2010 list that the ERA helpfully provide.

Yet I'm utterly convinced that I've seen it marked on Eurostar's trains as "GB-EIL". Is there something I'm missing?

 

[StephenHunter]

I've definitely seen at as GB-EIL and here's the photo to prove it.

 

[43096]

Forgive me if this is a bit odd - I've been looking through the current list of Vehicle Keeper Markings checking a different operator and noticed in passing that Eurostar's is shown as being "GB-EU", and that it's currently 'blocked' (as opposed to 'in use' or 'revoked'). It's the same too in the reference copy of the 2010 list that the ERA helpfully provide.

Yet I'm utterly convinced that I've seen it marked on Eurostar's trains as "GB-EIL". Is there something I'm missing?

Yes, it's a bit odd...

EUK = Eurostar (UK)
EIL = Eurostar International

EUK of course being the old UK company that was folded in to EIL when the operation was re-structured a while back. Obviously there ought to be an EIL entry in the VKM listing.

 

[DanielB]

It's the same too in the reference copy of the 2010 list that the ERA helpfully provide.

It actually isn't completely the same: GB-EU has the status "Proposed" in the 1st list that's published for reference.
Haven't the markings for British operators disappeared from the list due to Brexit?

The list by the way contains several codes of no longer existing operators...

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Haven't the markings for British operators disappeared from the list due to Brexit?

No. British operators are still listed, and plenty of other non-EU countries are included.

 

[43096]

Haven't the markings for British operators disappeared from the list due to Brexit?

No, why would they? Switzerland isn’t in the EU and there are VKMs for the likes of SBB and BLS.

 

[StephenHunter]

No. British operators are still listed, and plenty of other non-EU countries are included.

They're UIC markings, an organisation that turns 100 this year. It's also the 50th anniversary of Interrail.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

The European Vehicle Number is the UIC number plus the alphabetical country code and the VKM.

A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons, except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005) with a 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country. The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA)[3] and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa.

 

[XAM2175]

I've definitely seen at as GB-EIL and here's the photo to prove it.

Thanks!

EUK of course being the old UK company that was folded in to EIL when the operation was re-structured a while back. Obviously there ought to be an EIL entry in the VKM listing.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that that had happened. Odd indeed that there's no new entry, but it obviously isn't causing anybody any problems.

It actually isn't completely the same: GB-EU has the status "Proposed" in the 1st list that's published for reference.

It appears as proposed in the first preliminary list (07/07/2007), but is blocked in the first routine list (14/01/2010).