Eurostar’s chief has announced plans to extend the line’s route network with direct service from London to Frankfurt and London to Geneva by the “early 2030s,” but skeptics wonder if the announcement is mainly about claiming enough capacity to block competitors who are working to enter the cross-channel market.
At least three other companies—Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Italy’s state-owned railway company FS Italiane, and a start-up called Gemini Trains aligned with a Spanish venture capital firm—have announced plans to compete with Eurostar. The Channel Tunnel has room for many more trains, but the London terminal at St Pancras would require modification and Eurostar says it has no room at the Temple Mills maintenance and service depot for rival operators.
The new announcements, which involve a five-hour time to Frankfurt, possibly with a stop at Cologne and a 5:20 time to Geneva, which might also have one or more stops, appear to some to be a response to the British Office of Rail and Road’s determination that there is room at Temple Mills and St Pancras for one more operator—or for Eurostar expansion.
In the meantime, at least one immediate expansion is on the books for Eurostar: It’s adding a fourth direct daily service each way between London and Amsterdam starting September 9, and will add a fifth in December.
Interesting – I took the announcement at face value. The sceptics are probably right!