Charlotte Edwards
Business reporter
New direct train routes from London to Germany, Switzerland and France could open as part of plans to boost passenger numbers at St Pancras station.
London St Pancras Highspeed, which owns the station and operates the track to the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone, has already set out proposals to increase capacity for international train travel from 1,800 passengers per hour to almost 5,000.
It now wants to attract different train operators to offer a range of services in Europe.
Eurostar currently holds a monopoly on the trains through the Channel Tunnel with routes to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
London St Pancras Highspeed and Getlink have signed an agreement that will help them to commit to expanding rail connectivity between the UK and Europe.
“Many European cities could be reached directly by train in under six hours which we believe is really competitive with short-haul air travel,” said a spokesperson for London St Pancras Highspeed.
Yann Leriche, chief executive of Getlink, which owns Eurotunnel, said: “We are keen to drive forward attractive opportunities for low-carbon mobility with a range of new destinations in Germany, Switzerland and France.”
Getlink believes it is possible for train services to Bordeaux, Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, Marseille and Zurich to be created.
No set timeline has been revealed as yet.
Eurostar dropped services between London and Disneyland Paris in June 2023, and no longer has routes between London and the south of France.
Virgin Group and Evolyn are two companies developing plans for rival services to Eurostar that could take passengers to the newly proposed destinations.
Virgin acknowledged that it would be a “huge undertaking” to establish a new cross-Channel operator but said the route was “ripe for change with plenty of room and potential for new competition at St Pancras and through the Tunnel”.
Competition between different companies on the route would benefit all customers, a spokesperson added.
London St Pancras Highspeed and Getlink have signed an agreement that will help them to commit to expanding rail connectivity between the UK and Europe.
Robert Sinclair, chief executive of London St Pancras Highspeed, said demand for international train travel was growing.
He said his company would work with Getlink “to encourage new and existing train operators to expand capacity and launch new destinations unlocking the potential of a fully connected Europe”.
