Eurostar has promised direct trains from London to Frankfurt and Geneva – but not this decade. The cross-Channel rail firm says it will buy up to 50 new trains and will run some of them from the UK to Germany and Switzerland in the “early 2030s”.
The announcement comes as rival firms are vying to compete with Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel. Eurostar says it marks “a new golden age of international sustainable travel”.
But will travellers be tempted? These are the key questions and answers.
What trains does Eurostar run at present to and from the UK?
The most popular – and profitable – route is from London to Paris, but Eurostar also links the UK capital with Lille in northern France, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Eurostar used to serve many more places, including Calais, Disneyland Paris, Lyon, Avignon and Marseille, but gave up due to a combination of Covid and Brexit.
You can of course connect at Lille, Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam, but that ranges from a bit of an inconvenience at Brussels to a complete faff when having to change terminal stations in Paris.
What exactly is proposed?
Direct trains between London St Pancras and both Frankfurt (four times a day) and Geneva (three times a day), some time from 2030 onwards. While there is no detail about stops, I predict the Frankfurt train would stop in Cologne on its 5 hour journey, while the 5 hour 20 minutes trip from London to Geneva might simply stop at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport en route – or perhaps even pause at Disneyland Paris. But such decisions are so far down the line that frankly anything is possible.
What is driving this expansion?
Eurostar wants to increase its passenger numbers, and sees these key business routes as good targets. Currently there are 15 flights a day each way between the London airports and Geneva (a number that increases sharply in peak ski season) and two dozen flights from London to Frankfurt.
Eurostar will build on its success of the route to Amsterdam, which is just over four hours from London; a fourth daily train will launch on 9 September and a fifth from mid-December.
Will these links appeal to passengers?
Many of the people on Eurostar at present are business travellers, and increasingly companies are stipulating their staff should travel by rail if a reasonable alternative to flying is available.
Eurostar’s chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, told me the firm’s customers want to travel more in a more sustainable way – and that a five-hour journey would be popular with travellers. “You work, you rest, and you have a great time. It’s what we call seamless travel and the unique Eurostar experience.”
Many of the hurdles and stresses involved in aviation are reduced for international rail travel. Yet I think five hours or more could be pushing it. Even though the journey is city-centre to city-centre, connectivity is notoriously patchy on trains – though that may of course improve in the next few years.
For budget passengers, fares of perhaps £59 each way will be available with sufficient advance booking and flexibility. But the airlines will probably continue to tempt travellers because they are often cheaper as well as faster.
What does the competition have in mind?
Three companies are desperate to compete with Eurostar on its core routes, particularly to Paris. They are Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Italy’s state-owned railway company FS Italiane, and a start-up called Gemini Trains, which plans to run from Stratford in east London.
There is plenty of room on the rails for competition, but St Pancras would need some reconfiguration – and last week the Office of Rail and Road said capacity at the international train depot in east London is so limited that at most one new entrant could compete with Eurostar.
Has Eurostar always had a monopoly on the rail link?
Yes, though the company would say it competes with airlines, coach firms and people deciding to drive between London and Continental Europe using the tunnel or ferries.
Since 1994, with limited capacity, average fares have been high. Booking tomorrow, for example, the lowest London-Paris on-way fare is £219. The cheapest flights are one-third of that.
While Eurostar offers some tickets for as little as £78 return for those who book ahead and are flexible, the company is doing well from its market position. It makes a handsome £8 per passenger profit at present.
Listen to Simon Calder’s podcast on the Eurostar plans
