During the course of the year, we also had announcements for more long-term aspirations. Firstly, the UK and Swiss Governments signed an agreement to explore options for direct rail services between the 2 countries. Then in the latter part of the year Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn announced plans to jointly run services between London and one, two or possibly three German City destinations. And there is always “The elephant in the room” as to how will they provide the onerous security & border controls at these destinations and any intermediate stops.

While there is enough capacity with 6 platforms at London St Pancras to run extra services, sooner or later there will be a stronger case for starting services from Stratford International and re-opening Ashford & Ebbsfleet. It is still not clear if there is enough platform & terminal capacity at Paris, Brussels & Amsterdam to run any of the planned extra services.

AND FINALLY – STOP PRESS FROM TRENITALIA -30th DECEMBER 2025

Trenitalia have just announced their own plans to launch a London-Paris service from 2029 – one year ahead of Virgin !! They seem to have enough suitable trains on order, plan to build their own depot in Northern France to service their trains and already run high speed train services in France. Here is their press release: https://parliamentnews.co.uk/italys-fs-group-to-enter-eurostar-route-with-london-paris-trains

And a Happy New Year to all subscribers !!!

More than 31 years after the first Eurostar left London for Paris, Eurostar may finally enjoy some competition from Virgin if and when they launch their new services to Paris & Brussels, hopefully in 2030. This is because the Office for Road & Rail (The Regulator) have ruled that Virgin must be allowed to share the Stratford train care depot with Eurostar. See here for the ORR Press Release: https://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/rail-regulator-opens-door-future-international-train-services-temple-mills-access. Although Virgin have not been a train operator in the UK since 2019, they were able to make the best case to the Regulator. Virgin have raised suitable finance to order a fleet of “Avelia Stream” trains which can be maintained at the depot in Stratford.

While this is a start, Virgin will have their work cut out for the next 4+ years if the service is to start as planned in 2030. Hopefully, we can finally look forward to lower fares on the London to Paris & Brussels route with proper “through-ticketing” between major UK stations and all major stations in Europe. We now have to wait and see if any of their 3 rivals (Gemini Trains, Evolyn & Trenitalia France) have any further plans. From the UK side, we hope that one of them might have a viable plan to start a service using Stratford, Ebbsfleet and Ashford International stations.

We can recommend a very interesting discussion about this decision and what this might entail for the future. Have a look at this Green Signals video on Youtube at : Virgin Trains is BACK! And ready to take on Eurostar…