This in stark contrast to the Swiss who now have a virtually 100% electric railway powered from mainly renewable sources which are not affected by the Gulf War. While train fares and much else are not that cheap in Switzerland the service is so frequent and reliable that they broke their punctuality records last year in 2025.

See here for a link to a recent report in the Swiss Media; https://lenews.ch/2026/01/28/swiss-railways-set-a-new-punctuality-record/

© CFF/SBB

Given the outrageous cost over-runs just for building a “truncated” HS2 from London to Birmingham, you might think that reviving such a link is a non-starter. However, Kayla Bibby -an Independent Traffic Planner thinks otherwise and has drawn up a plan. Tunnelling of the final section from Old Oak Common to Euston has only just begun and no final plan has been agreed for London Euston. She argues that there is still time to build this link as part of the Euston works for a cost of just £1.4 Billion – this is a small sum compared to the up to £90 billion total cost of building HS2. Opening up this link would make better use of HS2, as not just a London-Birmingham Shuttle but a strategic link from the Midlands and North to the expanding European High-Speed Network. Not building this link would relegate the UK to just remaining as a High-Speed branch-line from Lille. This is a plan for the long-term benefit of the UK economy and would help Liverpool & Manchester’s joint bid for the 2040 Olympics.

We strongly recommend that you have a look at her plan here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hs1hs2-connector-how-single-link-transforms-depots-services-bibby-jahfe/

EPF CONFERENCE 5th -6th JUNE in MAASTRICHT >>>>

Every Year the European Passenger Federation holds an Annual Conference in June. Last year it came to Swindon in the UK and this year it moves to The Netherlands. As many of you know, our campaign is one of 40+ EPF member organisations from 21 different countries. If you are a member of our campaign you can go to the conference for the much-reduced fee of 100 Euros – not bad for a 2-day conference?

To find out more about registration and the programme see here: epfconference.eu

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 !!!

(1) PARIS to BERLIN: Until last year passengers had to change trains in Frankfurt. There is now a direct daily service between the 2 capital cities taking about 8 hours in each direction.

(2) PRAGUE to GDYNIA (BALTIC EXPRESS): Thanks to co-operation between the Czech State Railways and the Polish State Railways in 2024 a 4 times daily Eurocity Service going via Wroclaw and Poznan was launched. The end-to-end journey time is about 9 hours with many opportunities to stop off and visit attractive and interesting cities along the way. The service runs every 4 hours, where the last train of the day is effectively a “night train”. taking about 10.5 hours. You can read more about the journey here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20250221-the-baltic-express-central-europes-new-hop-on-hop-off-train

(3) WARSAW to the 3 BALTIC CAPITAL CITIES: Until a few years ago it was virtually impossible to make this journey, as there were no through services and no proper connections linking the 4 capital cities. Then 2 years ago a regular daily service began between Warsaw and Vilnius with a simple connection at Mockava on the Lithuanian border. We have just heard that this service will be increasing to 3 times a day in 2026 !! Then last year a regular daily service began linking Vilnius with Riga. And finally in 2025 this service was extended to Valga on the Estonian border with a simple onward connection to Tallinn.

(4) MORE DIRECT DAY TRAINS PLANNED BETWEEN ITALY, AUSTRIA AND GERMANY via the Brenner Pass: Again, due to co-operation between the 3 State Rail companies, 2 daily Eurocity services linking both Milan and Rome to Munich will run from December 2026. These will be followed by 2 more in 2027, one linking Milan and Berlin and another linking Naples with Munich. Finally in 2028 a further service will be introduced between Naples and Berlin.

There is an alternative choice of services via Paris GDLyon to Milano with an easy change in Geneva or Lausanne. This route provides at least one day-time journey opportunity from London.

Another alternative choice, also via Paris GDLyon to Milano, involves an easy change at Basel or Zurich. This route provides at least two day-time journey opportunities from London.

This is the first time for several years where all the main connections from London to Northern Italy via Paris are available. Either the Gotthard route through Switzerland had been partially closed for a year or the Simplon route via Lausanne had been periodically closed due to extensive engineering works.

AND FINALLY – A few places are still left for the EPF conference in Swindon on 13th/14th June. Members of our campaign are entitled to the discounted rate of 100 Euros. See the link below for details: https://www.epfconference.eu/

The town of Swindon has a rich rail history and is associated with Rail 200 – a range of events across the UK celebrating 200 years of the railways.

The conference will take place on Friday 13th June and Saturday 14th June. European Rail campaign (UK) is a member of the European Passenger Federation, which means that members of our campaign are entitled to pay the reduced fee for the conference. See here for further details about the conference: https://www.epf.eu/wp/save-the-date-epf-22nd-annual-conference/?utm_source=Laposta&utm_campaign=EPF+newsletter+86&utm_medium=email

AT LAST – VIRGIN TO RUN AN INTERNATIONAL TRAIN SERVICE FROM THE UK IN 2029?

Virgin have recently announced that they hope to place an order for 12 new high-speed trains. They plan to use them on a new service competing with the current Eurostar services on HS1 and the Channel Tunnel. See here for further details: https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/01/13/virgin-group-speeds-up-train-order-to-compete-with-eurostar-challenge

Although, in recent years, a through service from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam has been introduced, other services have been permanently withdrawn or not re-instated since the outbreak of Covid in early 2020. There are no longer any through services from the UK to EuroDisney, the South of France or the Ski resorts in the French Alps. Since Covid, trains no longer serve the intermediate stations of Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Calais Frethun.

WHERE ARE WE NOW ?

The capacity of the infrastructure built at great expense remains seriously underused apart from the overcrowded passenger terminal at London St Pancras. Getlink, the owners of the Channel Tunnel, are keen to have more passenger train services running through the tunnel. HS1, the owners of the high-speed line from London to the Tunnel are keen to have more passenger train services running on their line. Eurostar are only willing to concentrate on their core business between London, Lille, Brussels and Amsterdam. Several open access train operators seem willing to run services from Europe to the UK. Although the terminal at St Pancras may be expanded to cope with more departures, there remains unused terminal capacity at Stratford, Ebbsfleet and Ashford.

WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITES ?

The Regulator known as “The Office of Rail and Road” has proposed that HS1 reduce their track access charges by 7.7% for the next 5-year period starting in April 2025. If this is confirmed, we would expect Eurostar to reduce their fares accordingly. For further details see: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/eurostar-fares-southeastern-regulator-orr-hs1-access-charges-b1184975.html

Have a look at Transmanche Metro to see what other services could run if we made better use of the infrastructure. https://transmanchemetro.com/

There are also campaigns to fully open-up Stratford International for services to Europe. For further details see: Eurostar trains would stop at Stratford International in boost to east London under revived proposals | The Standard

And finally, we expect the newly elected Labour Government to be more committed to de-carbonisation of Transport and help facilitate better transport links with Europe.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT: –

Here is a short video clip at https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6zIkGFr_6RE from a German teenager who has spent more than a year living on German trains. He manages to carry out his work as a software developer and then spends his spare time visiting towns, cities and leisure attractions for the cost of an annual first-class rail pass. The pass costs him about 10,000 Euros. He also explains how he manages to sleep and wash his clothes, while moving around the country.

HS1, the owners of St Pancras International station have signed a contract with “Active Thinking”(AT) to come up with recommendations for expanding the capacity of the station to cope with both more passengers and post Brexit passport controls. AT have a track record of similar work at airports, stations and the 2012 Olympics. It is expected that they will have a report ready this autumn. Click here for further information: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/hs1-ltd-commissions-study-to-expand-st-pancras-international-station-12-07-2024/

(2) RE-OPENING OF THE GOTTHARD BASE TUNNEL:

Swiss Federal Railways have announced that the tunnel will fully re-open on 2nd September following the freight train de-railment that caused severe damage over a year ago. The one-hour reduction in journey times on this route through Switzerland will again provide much easier daytime journey options between the UK and Northern Italy.

(3) RE-OPENING OF THE MONT-CENIS ROUTE BETWEEN FRANCE AND ITALY:

This route has been completely blocked since a severe landslide in August 2023. Since then, there have been no through High-Speed Train services between Paris/Lyon to Turin & Milan in Northern Italy. It is expected that this “Transalpine” rail connection will finally re-open in November. Once this is route is back in operation, rail passengers from the UK will, once again, have the choice of 3 routes to Italy via the Swiss Alps: -namely the Gotthard, Simplon/Lotschberg and Mont Cenis routes. In the meantime, you could still enjoy one daily TGV Inoui from Paris to Milan using a rail-replacement bus from St Jean de Maurienne to Oulx . If this appeals to you have a look at this short video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45LJVBNaRHU

(4) RAIL/SAIL/RAIL returns to NEWHAVEN/ DIEPPE:

For a trial period of 6 months until 31st December DFDS Ferries have re-introduced a connecting bus service from the Dieppe Ferry terminal to the station which is one and a half miles away in the town centre. This has only been made possible due to support from local authorities in France. On the UK side the ferry terminal is right next to Newhaven Town station, which has a half-hourly service to London, Surrey and Sussex with a change at Lewes.

No2: Propose an EU-wide master plan to increase the supply of rail services for freight and passengers. The Commission must ensure that future EU policies all contribute to increasing supply and to the modal shift towards rail transport.

No 3: To ensure, through a new legislative proposal, that a passenger can easily compare, book and pay for their door-to-door train journey in a trans-European perspective, while being assured of the continuity of their journey, regardless of whether one or several rail companies are involved.

No 4: Develop a dedicated strategy for night train passenger services, including reduced fares, to offer a viable alternative to short- and medium-haul flights in Europe.

For the full 20-point declaration, please go to https://belgian-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/news/the-belgian-presidency-outlines-the-future-of-european-mobility-in-a-brussels-declaration/?utm_source=dsms-presidency&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Het%20Belgische%20voorzitterschap%20schetst%20de%20Europese%20mobiliteit%20van%20de%20toekomst%20in%20een%20Verklaring%20van%20Brussel