[News]
Eurostar has said it plans to launch direct train services from London to Germany and Switzerland.
A fleet of up to 50 new trains, costing around €2bn (£1.7bn), is planned to be up and running by the early 2030s, the firm announced.
Travel time between London and Frankfurt will be about five hours, and around five hours and 20 minutes to Geneva.
Eurostar’s boss said there was strong demand for train travel across Europe, despite the challenges of higher operational costs and inflation squeezing customer budgets.
“A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here,” said chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave, adding that customers were “wanting to go further by rail than ever before”.
The firm is also planning for the proposed new fleet to service a direct line to Geneva from both Amsterdam and Brussels.
It said it was working with partners to get the new lines up and running.
It is not clear if the routes to Frankfurt and Geneva will include stops on the way for passengers to board or leave.
The announcement came as the firm reported a 5% boost in passengers in 2024 compared with the previous year.
It saw a record 19.5 million passengers in 2024 across all of its services.
The company also said it will increase the frequency of its most popular route between London and Paris.
Currently, Eurostar’s London trains go to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and during the ski season, the French Alps.
It also runs trains within France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Eurostar currently has a monopoly on the trains through the Channel Tunnel.
London St Pancras Highspeed – which owns the station and operates the track to the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone – wants to attract different train operators to offer a range of services in Europe.
Getlink, which owns the Channel Tunnel, signed an agreement in February with London St Pancras Highspeed to increase the number of services running to Europe.
[English News]
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