Britain's mothballed regional Eurostars , the seven high speed trainsets built to link cities in the Midlands and north of England directly with Paris and Brussels , are being leased by French state-owned train operator SNCF until at least 2011 (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/07/regional_eurostars_leased_to_s.html#more

The regional Eurostars were originally ordered by British Rail at a cost of £180m to provide an extension of the cross-Channel service , which after several studies was deemed unaffordable and consequently scrapped. As a result , the seven train sets have spent much of their existence sitting idle in railway sheds.