LONDON — High-speed trains linking the U.K. to the continent through the Channel Tunnel may soon depart every 15 minutes — thanks to competition from new operators on the route. The number of daily services between London St Pancras and destinations like Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam is on track to rise from the 25 round trips currently operated by Eurostar each day to 55 by the end of the decade — around four departures per hour — according to POLITICO calculations. The Channel Tunnel has been running under capacity since it opened in 1994 and infrastructure owners have long encouraged a “second operator” to challenge incumbent Eurostar on the rail line to the continent.
That idea seems to have finally left the station. Virgin Trains was last week given the green signal by the U.K. regulator to run up to 20 daily return trips between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, the first of several authorizations required for international trains. Virgin wants to begin the services in 2030.
Martin Jones, deputy director, access and international at the U.K.’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR), said the approval of Virgin’s track access rights was “an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services.” But it looks increasingly likely that it won’t just be Virgin competing with Eurostar on the route to London. Trenitalia, Italy’s state railway, is adamant it will be running services on the Channel route by 2029. It has promised 10 round trips a day, with operations starting from 2029.
The operator has put its money where its mouth is, this month placing a €2 billion order with manufacturer Hitachi for 19 new high-speed trains, some of which it says will be for use in the Channel Tunnel. The state-owned company says it can stable the trains in France, at a new €80 million facility at Maisons-Alfort Pompadour, south of Paris. The depot is already under construction and will also be used to maintain rolling stock for its increasingly popular trains between Italy and France.
Using this new facility will allow Trenitalia to bypass capacity limits at the Temple Mills International depot in east London, where Eurostar keeps its fleet and where Virgin is also expected to do so. The U.K. regulator allocated the last space in the facility to Virgin last year. Mark Smith, a former rail manager who runs the popular Man In Seat 61 travel website, told POLITICO: “Both contenders appear to have the ability and financial backing to make this happen, but there are many steps in a long process before any train runs.
Trenitalia are in pole position with a 2029 start date, helped by having ordered trains of a type already approved for France and a continuation of an existing production line.” “I see no reason why experience in Italy or Spain should not be repeated, where competition has raised standards, increased capacity and lowered average fares. The whole market has gown, in Italy Trenitalia is carrying more passengers than it did before competition from Italo arrived. Passengers have won, the biggest loser has been short haul flights.” There’s still plenty of time for it all to go wrong — as it has before.
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