France’s rail safety body, EPSF, has given Eurostar the green light to operate its new e320 high-speed trains.

Approval from the French authorities is a necessary step for Eurostar, which plans to put the new 16-car trains into service from December between England, France and Belgium.

The Authorisation for Commercial Use (AMEC) provides Eurostar with the certification it needs to operate high-speed international services up to 320 km/h on the French national network.

Further approvals are now needed from the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) to allow the new trains to use the Channel Tunnel. Eurostar will also need certification from the Dutch authorities to allow it to run direct services to the Netherlands for the first time as planned.

Eurostar awarded Siemens the contract to supply 10 new high-speed train sets in 2010. Presenting the first e320 at St Pancras a year ago, Eurostar chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said the operator planned to order an additional seven trains.

All 10 16-car trains of the original order are scheduled to be delivered by March-April 2016.

The fleet of 17 distributed power EMUs is part of a £1 billion investment programme which also includes the modernisation of the original Class 373 fleet.