the European Union where border controls have either had a long history of operation or are no longer enforced, the UK maintains concerns about customs and immigration. The inter-capital services still operate separately from the rest of the British railway network with passport checks carried out at St Pancras, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International stations. There was concern that similar tight control would not be possible upon regional Eurostar services where separate check-in facilities at stations did not exist. To stop regional Eurostar services competing with domestic services in the envisioned competitive market that it was hoped the privatisation of British Rail would create, they were not to stop in London and only allowed to pick up at regional stations whilst going south and set down passengers going north. This was cited as another negative reason for their economic non-viability. The politics of the regional Eurostar service, along with many other Channel Tunnel-related projects, have been complicated over the years. In 1999 the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions commissioned Arthur D. Little Ltd to write an independent report into regional Eurostar service which was published in February 2000. Future The opening of High Speed 1 in November 2007 brought connections to both the East Coast Main Line and North London Line (for the West Coast Main Line) at St Pancras. In addition, the maximum speed on the West Coast Main Line was increased from 110 to 125 mph in the mid-2000s (though class 373s were limited by kinematic gauging constraints to 110 mph). Eurostar (UK) still owns several track access rights and the rights to paths on both the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines, which allowed for the possibility of such services. The proposed route of HS2 into London will bring the line very close to the existing High Speed 1 (HS1) line which terminates at St Pancras station; at their closest points, the two high-speed lines will be only apart, and the Department for Transport (DfT) examined various proposals for connecting HS1 and HS2. A governmental "command paper" published in March 2010 proposed either a rapid transit link between HS1 and HS2 terminals, or a direct railway connection. Later announcements on 10 January 2012 suggested that the first phase of the HS2 project was to include the construction of a single track link across North London between HS2 and HS1, partially in tunnels and