* Hopes to run services from London to Frankfurt by end-2013
* Tested Siemens trains similar to those ordered by Eurostar
* Would challenge Eurostar's monopoly on the Channel Tunnel
By Greg Roumeliotis and Caroline Copley
LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bahn showcased a Siemens high-speed train in London on Tuesday which it hopes will run services to Germany through the Channel Tunnel, challenging Eurostar's monopoly and Alstom trains.
The ICE 3 train, which can hit 320 kilometres per hour, was on display at London's St Pancras station following safety tests. Deutsche Bahn is aiming to operate services from London to Frankfurt and Cologne by the end of 2013.
"We see a London to Frankfurt service attracting 1.1 million more passengers annually and a London to Cologne service adding another million," Fabienne Lissak, a spokeswoman for Groupe Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel Tunnel, said.
In 2009, Eurotunnel made 44 percent of its 571 million euros revenue from Eurostar which currently enjoys a monopoly on the track as sole rail passenger service operator, and from freight service operators. Eurostar carried 9.2 million passengers through the tunnel in 2009. Eurotunnel says that there is still around 50 percent spare capacity.
The German company aims to run services three times a day between London and Amsterdam and Frankfurt. One 400 metre long train would travel to Brussels and then split with one half going on to Amsterdam and the other half travelling to Frankfurt via Cologne.
Eurostar, which is 55 percent owned by the French government through state-owned railway group SNCF, has also ordered new Siemens trains similar to the one on show in London on Tuesday.
France has been vocal in opposing Eurostar's decision to snub Alstom. Alstom and the French government say that Siemens trains might not comply with safety rules on the tunnel.
Deutsche Bahn said on Tuesday its safety tests had gone better than expected.
A Franco-British governmental commission is reviewing regulations, such as those for trains that have a traction system under their carriages, removing the need for locomotives at each end.
"Our ICE 3 trains are very similar to the Valero trains that Eurostar has ordered from Siemens, they are from the same production line," a Deutsche Bahn spokesman said. Deutsche Bahn has ordered 15 ICE 3 trains from Siemens for 500 million euros.
"The issues we will need approval for is distributed traction and allowing our trains to split."
On Monday, a European Union source told Reuters that the European Commission saw nothing wrong with Eurostar's procurement process for the trains and that Alstom had not officially referred the matter to European authorities.
Deutsche Bahn expects that journeys to Cologne will take just under 4 hours with Frankfurt 5 hours away.
"I definitely like trains more than airplanes, but they are really turning trains into planes on rail," said Andrea Mubi, a 35-year-old Italian looking at the ICE 3 at the train station after getting off a Eurostar train from Paris.
With congestion and security measures at airports extending the average London to Frankfurt flight duration of 1 hour and 40 minutes significantly, the German railway argues that passengers will view a rail alternative more favourably.
Driven by the allure of fast and cleaner commute and supported by governments looking for alternatives to air travel, an expansion of Europe's high-speed rail network should spell a boom for rail operators, train manufacturers and contractors.
Yet despite the international passenger market in the EU opening up to competition since Jan. 1, state-owned firms still dominate train operations while suppliers of rolling stock coming from outside Europe have struggled to make inroads.
In April, Deutche Bahn clinched a 1.58 billion pound takeover of British transport group Arriva to create Europe's No.1 passenger carrier, enlarging its footprint in rail, bus and logistics outside Germany.
Eurostar is 40 percent owned by British-state owned LCR with 5 percent by Belgium's SNCB.
(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)