Eurostar plans direct trains from London to Frankfurt and Genève

EUROPE: Eurostar has announced plans to offer direct London – Frankfurt, London – Genève and Amsterdam – Brussels – Genève services once new trains enter service in the early 2030s.

‘Our new fleet will make new destinations for customers a reality – notably direct trains between London and Germany, and between London and Switzerland for the first time’, Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave said when the operator presented its 2024 results on June 10. ‘A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here.’

New trains

To support its target of increasing ridership to 30 million passengers/year, Eurostar is progressing its previously announced plans to invest €2bn in up to 50 trainsets to expand capacity and enable the development of new routes.

This would enable the withdrawal of the trainsets it acquired through the merger with Thalys, and the remaining original Class 373 cross-Channel sets. This would give it a fleet of 17 Siemens Mobility Velaro e320 sets plus the new trains, with 67 trainsets potentially offering an overall increase in fleet capacity of up to a 30%.

The new trains would be able to operate across Eurostar’s whole network, including through the Channel Tunnel to the UK as well as on the former Thalys routes in Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

New routes

Eurostar said it is working with partners to develop the three new routes. 

The Germany route is being discussed with Deutsche Bahn, which said it is in regular contact with other European operators and infrastructure managers, including UK high speed line manager London St Pancras Highspeed. A DB spokesperson told Railway Gazette International ‘we are in talks with Eurostar about a direct connection from Germany to London. Together, we want to bring Germany and the UK closer together on the railway. We are convinced of the great potential of a direct connection. We are eager to expand the existing sales co-operation with Eurostar and therefore welcome Eurostar’s acquisition of new trains.’

DB said there are up to six daily connections between Germany and the UK with a change between Eurostar and ICE services in Brussels, but ‘a direct connection from Germany to London is technically, operationally and legally challenging’ and ‘several essential conditions must be met for its commissioning’.

Eurostar’s announcement came as other potential operators are seeking to compete on the cross-Channel routes to London, and a month after the British and Swiss governments announced they are to examine how to overcome the barriers to launching a through service between the countries.

However, a study commissioned by the UK regulator the Office of Rail & Road has found that without significant investment there is room for at most one new Channel Tunnel train operator at Temple Mills depot in London, the only UK facility which is able to handle trains built to a Continental loading gauge.

Eurostar ridership up

Presenting its annual results, Eurostar said ‘despite a challenging economic climate, driven by high inflation and increases in fixed costs’, it achieved EBITDA of €346m in 2024. This was attributed to ‘growth in passengers travelling and focused cost management’. Passenger numbers rose 5% year-on-year to over 19·5 million. In April 2024 it refinanced its €963·7m bank debt, which stood at €650m at the end of the year.

‘We are seeing strong demand for train travel across Europe, with customers wanting to go further by rail than ever before and enjoy the unique experience we provide’, said Cazenave. ‘Despite the challenging economic climate, Eurostar is growing and has bold ambitions for the future.’