Eurostar reveals London to Switzerland plan amid demand for sustainable travel

Eurostar has unveiled plans to operate rail services connecting the UK with Germany and Switzerland.

The operator announced a proposal to run trains between London St Pancras and both Frankfurt and Geneva from the “early 2030s”. These routes would be served by a fleet of up to 50 new trains costing approximately €2bn (£1.7bn).

Journey times would be about five hours between London and Frankfurt, and five hours and 20 minutes between London and Geneva.

The train operator is also planning to run an extra service between Amsterdam and Geneva via Brussels.

The announcement comes as Eurostar faces the prospect of losing its monopoly grip on cross-channel rail services for the first time.

The Channel Tunnel has been open to competitors since 2010, but the expense of launching services and buying trains has deterred new rail operators from competing.

Around 400 trains use the tunnel daily but it has has capacity for more than double that – 1,000 – pitting companies in a race to order trains and establish routes.

However there is fresh desire to run rail services to and from the continent following regulatory changes as well as financial incentives to spur greater rail competition. Experts say passengers can look forward to more choices, better services, and potentially lower fares.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group says it wants to launch cross-channel services by 2029, and negotiations are already taking place for a fleet of trains to operate the service.

A Spanish-led consortium known as Evolyn has also declared an interest in high-speed services between London and Paris. It says it has already reached an agreement with Alstom to purchase 12 trains.

A start-up called Gemini Trains, led by Tony Berkeley, a former Eurotunnel engineer and now a peer, is seeking an operator’s license to service Paris, Strasbourg, Cologne, and Geneva with a fleet of 10 trains by 2029. An Italian entrant, FS Group, has also expressed interest.

Rival services hoping to operate on the High Speed 1 line, which runs through the tunnel, require access to Eurostar’s depot in east London, which is the only place where rolling stock can be stopped, inspected and serviced.

Eurostar has said the depot is already full. The rail watchdog, the Office for Rail and Road, has said that changes to the Temple Mills depot’s operations and maintenance will significantly increase its train capacity.

Eurostar is not taking the challenge of competitors lightly and says it has not decided what stops the new services would make – such as Cologne for Frankfurt trains – or whether passengers would be able to get on and off en route.

Eurostar chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave said passengers were prepared to take longer train journeys rather than flying as they “want to travel more sustainably”.

She expects there will be strong demand from leisure and business travellers for direct services to Frankfurt and Geneva, which she described as “big financial hubs”.

Last month, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander signed an agreement with her Swiss counterpart aimed at easing the path to direct train services between the countries.

Both are dealing with security and border controls issues. While Switzerland is part of the Schengen Agreement, which abolished most internal border checks between European nations, the UK is not, and Switzerland will be required to set up security checkpoints at rail stations in Geneva, as well as Zurich and Basel.

Frankfurt and any other German stations taking direct trains from London face similar challenges.

Ms Cazenave acknowledged that opening new international train routes requires “time, investments, expertise, a huge amount of energy, and partnerships” but she had “no doubt” the new direct services will happen because of the “willingness” of Eurostar, passengers and governments.

Eurostar plans to operate an additional 17 new trains alongside its existing fleet, bringing its total to 67, a 30 per cent increase.

Its new fleet will also enable it to boost existing routes, such as increasing daily return frequencies between London and Paris from 17 to 20.

The company also confirmed it will add a fourth daily return service between St Pancras and Amsterdam from 9 September, and a fifth from mid-December.

The operator’s London trains serve Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and the French Alps during the ski season.

It also runs services within Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

London-Paris was its strongest performing route in 2024, with 280,000 passengers, followed by London-Brussels (250,000 passengers), Paris-Brussels (160,000 passengers) and Paris-the Netherlands (140,000 passengers).

Ms Cazenave said: “We’re 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.

“Despite the challenging economic climate, Eurostar is growing and has bold ambitions for the future.

“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.

“A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here.”

Eurostar said revenues rose 2 per cent to 2bn euros last year, and recorded underlying earnings of 346m euros (£292m).

It said it refinanced its 963.7m euros (£813.2 million) bank debt in 2024, reducing the amount to 650m euros (£549 million) by the end of the year.

Eurostar is majority-owned by French state railway company SNCF. The UK sold its stake in Eurostar to private companies for £757m in 2015.