Uber reveals plans to join Eurostar rival train line with new routes to Europe
UBER has confirmed they will be partnering with a rival train line set to take on Eurostar.
Gemini Trains previously revealed plan s to launch 10 trains from the UK to Europe, with routes to Paris and Brussels.
And today Uber has said they will be branding the cross-channel routes with Gemini.
This means that UK travellers will be able to book a train to Europe via the Uber app.
Brits can already book trains using the Uber app but it will be a first for branded Uber trains to Europe.
Andrew Brem, General Manager, Uber UK says: 'We've seen amazing momentum since we began launching new modes of transport in the UK.
"And this collaboration with Gemini Trains is our latest step in how we're helping people get where they want to go.
"We're excited about the opportunity to bring our brand to the iconic Channel Tunnel journey."
Gemini Trains' first route will be from London Stratford International, not from London St Pancras where the current Eurostar route runs.
It will be the first international route for the UK station.
The train will then go on to call at Ebbsfleet International, before travelling to Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels Midi.
When Gemini will launch trains, as well as how much tickets will cost, is yet to be revealed.
The Hidden Challenges of Being a Female Uber Driver
But with Eurostar currently offering fares from £39, it is likely they will be similar.
And Gemini isn't the only train operator who wants to take on Eurostar.
Virgin has confirmed they want to launch UK-Europe routes, having bought 12 trains.
Costing £500million, the entire project is expected to cost £1billion.
Bck in 2023, Start up operator Evolyn announced plans for trains between London and Paris.
And FS Italiane Group also has plans to launch a new train service between London and Paris by 2029.
Rival train companies were given a welcome boost earlier this year when a report confirmed that the current London Channel Tunnel depot at Temple Mills has space for more storage.
Eurostar, who stores their trains there, claimed there would be little room for rivals.
A Virgin spokesperson said it would "unlock competition on the cross-Channel route for the benefit of all passengers".
They added: "There are no more major hurdles to overcome, and Virgin is ready to take up the challenge, given its award-winning experience in the train industry and track-record for building globally successful travel brands."
2
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Vinted pro reveals 'sneaky' trick to help flog clothes you're struggling to sell
A professional Vinted seller has revealed the one nifty trick she uses to help flog hard-to-shift items on the app. Caroline, who hails from the UK, boasts 213,000 followers on TikTok where she regularly shares her top tips for aspiring vendors. The 49-year-old, who has made thousands on the app, introduced the video by describing the 'genius hack' she uses to cash in on unsold items. She explained at the beginning of the clip - which now has 15,000 views - that she had already sold three pieces that day and was preparing to send them. But before making her way to the Post Office, she will periodically scan the app to see if any of her listings have been favourited. Then she will contact interested buyers to see if she can entice them into making a purchase, telling them she can post items imminently if they buy. 'I will write a message saying, "I will be doing a parcel run this afternoon. If you are still interested in this item, I can post this out to you today so you'll get it super quick",' she explained. 'Then, I'll copy and paste that same message to everyone else who has favourited items yet to be sold.' The nifty trick helps her nudge transactions which would have otherwise gone unsold, Caroline claimed, adding that it was 'highly likely' that at least one person would bite. In previous videos, the thrifty seller said she once made £400 on the app in just one day. Several commenters agreed with the advice. 'I've done exactly this for about a month now,' one said. A second chimed: 'Great idea! Sneaky, but great! Others remarked that they also used the trick, with one gushing that they had sold five items doing so. Meanwhile, not everyone agreed, with one saying that they developed the 'ick' after sellers contacted them about a favourited item. Another admitted that they couldn't 'think of anything worse'. Caroline isn't the only successful secondhand seller to have cashed in on the Vinted train. Maisie, from Yorkshire, has amassed thousands of pounds selling garments and trinkets she's discovered at cat boot sales, charity shops and online pre-loved websites. Although it started off as a side hustle, she has now made reselling her full time career last year after earning £18,000 from flogging clothes. Now, she has helped others by telling them how they too can make a wage from the app - and according to her, it's very simple. Maisie said: 'I absolutely love buying on Vinted to resell on Vinted. It's so easy and it just goes to show the difference that a good quality picture with good lighting and a good background can honestly make.' She says that you should always list similar clothes sizes at the same time on Vinted, as people may browse your page and find other items that they like, resulting in more sales. Several commenters agreed with the advice 'They're more likely to get their money's worth by buying a bundle from you so it will boost your sales and your profit at the same time,' Maisie added. 'You're only having to ship out one parcel and the buyer is only having to pay one lot of postage and fees.' The seller said wannabe sellers also have to be careful about how they draft listings on Vinted - as sometimes a post can appear as though it was shared earlier than it was. In another clip, the reselling expert explained: 'If you draft something and then a week later you decide to hit live and publish it, it won't show as a new listing. It will show when you drafted it, which was a week ago. 'It will come up older in the listings, it won't show up at the top, it will show up as being a week old which will affect how people are looking at your listings because a lot of people will search for newest first.' Recently, Maisie revealed how she sold a dress for more than four times what she paid for it. She purchased a WoolOvers boho linen dress for just £3.30 on Vinted as part of a bundle from a seller. Maisie then ended up reselling it on eBay for a whopping £20.46.
Times
6 minutes ago
- Times
Trump-Merz meeting: president says Russia and Ukraine are ‘children fighting'
Trump said that the world would be 'amazed' by how tough he would be on Russia if the fighting continued. 'Remember this — they like to say I'm friends with Russia. I'm not friends with anybody,' he said. President Trump compared the war between Russia and Ukraine to 'two young children fighting like crazy in a park'. 'Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart,' he added. He said he told Putin during a phone call yesterday that 'maybe you're going to have to keep fighting, suffering a lot'. 'You see it in hockey, you see it in sports, the referees let them go at it for a while,' he added. Asked about a deadline for imposing further sanctions on Russia, Trump said that the date was 'in my brain'. Merz agreed with Trump that Germany was 'looking for measures to bring this war to an end', and mentioned that tomorrow is the 81st anniversary of D Day. 'That was not a pleasant day for you?' Trump asked. 'This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,' Merz replied. Trump said he expected President Putin to respond with force to the successful drone attack by Ukraine on Russia's bombing fleet last week. 'He got hit, he's been doing hitting,' said Trump. 'But he got hit hard. I don't think he's playing games.' Trump said that Merz 'feels the same way' about wanting to end the war. Trump said he was surprised by Elon Musk's reaction to his 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill. 'Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody,' Trump said. 'He only developed a problem when he found out we were going to have to cut the EV mandate,' he added, referring to a subsidy that paid billions of dollars to Musk's electric car company Tesla. 'I'm very disappointed in Elon, I've helped Elon a lot,' the president added. Musk has called the bill a 'disgusting abomination' and lobbied Republicans in Congress to oppose its passing. Trump casually dismissed claims that the US would withdraw its troops from Germany, saying they would remain 'if they'd like to have them there'. There are about 35,000 active-duty US troops stationed in Germany. 'They're highly paid troops and they spend a lot of money in Germany,' Trump said. Merz has brought the president the framed birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Trump. Friedrich Trump was born in Kallstadt, Germany, which was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria before immigrating to the United States in 1885. The questions turned to domestic politics and Trump's order to open a criminal investigation into anyone who worked to hide Biden's mental decline from the public during his time in office. Trump said that Biden 'didn't have much of an idea what was going on'. 'He was never for open borders, he was never for transgender for everybody,' said Trump. Trump said that his interactions with Merz over the past few months had been both 'difficult' and 'good'. 'I've been dealing with the chancellor. He's a very good man to deal with,' said Trump. 'He's difficult, you wouldn't want me to say you're easy, right?' He said he hoped to make progress on trade and tariff negotiations with Merz. Trump characterised his 90-minute call with President Xi as 'very positive'. He said that the two countries had agreed to hold talks in the near future to reach an impasse over trade and rare earth materials. 'I'll be going there with the first lady at a certain point and he'll be coming here, hopefully,' he said. Trump's Oval Office meeting with Merz began with questions about his travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and a host African nations. Trump said that the ban was needed for security and terrorism concerns. 'We have thousands of murderers,' Trump told reporters. 'I hate to say this in front of the chancellor, but you have a little problem too. You have your own difficulties too.' Merz has arrived at the White House before the first meeting between the two leaders. Trump greeted the German chancellor with a friendly handshake at the door to the White House and the two leaders walked inside. Asked by a reporter if he had a message for the German people, Trump responded: 'We love the people of Germany.' Merz has struck a cordial tone in the lead-up to Thursday's Oval Office meeting, writing in a statement this week that the US was 'an indispensable friend and partner of Germany'. 'Our alliance with America was, is, and remains of paramount importance for the security, freedom, and prosperity of Europe,' the chancellor wrote. Those remarks stood in contrast to his posturing prior to his election as chancellor in May. In February, Merz said that strengthening Europe was his 'absolute priority' in order to 'achieve independence' from the US. The same month, he wrote on X that his impression was 'that Russia and America are finding common ground — over the heads of Ukraine, and consequently over those of Europe'. President Trump held a 90-minute phone conversation with President Xi of China on Thursday amid stalled trade negotiations between the two countries. The US president said the conversation had a 'very positive conclusion' and announced that the two countries would hold talks in the hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals. 'Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,' Trump wrote on his social media platform. Trump added that Xi had 'graciously' invited him and the first lady Melania Trump to visit China, and that he had reciprocated the gesture. The Chinese foreign ministry said Trump had initiated the call between the leaders. Over the years foreign leaders have gone out of their way to bear eye-catching gifts when they meet President Trump: a personalised golf club, a nativity scene made of mother-of-pearl, a gold-plated model of a jet fighter and a presidential aircraft worth an estimated $400 million. When Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, steps into the Oval Office on Thursday, though, he does so with the unusual advantage of bringing more or less precisely the thing Trump has asked for. Barely five months ago Trump's demands that his European Nato allies stump up 5 per cent of their GDP for defence were regarded by most national capitals as outlandish, at or beyond the worst end of their expectations. Yet now the yardstick is rapidly becoming a matter of orthodoxy in the alliance, and no member state has moved so far towards it in such a short span of time as Merz's Germany. • Read the full story here Speaking to German journalists before his meeting with Trump, the chancellor said he wanted to strengthen Berlin's relations with the White House. 'I am looking forward to the visit,' Merz said. 'We are well-prepared. Nato will be a major topic, as will trade and Ukraine. When we talk about German domestic politics [the right-wing AFD], I will use clear words. 'The chancellery will intensify bilateral talks.' Germany's spy agency, the BfV, has classified the Alternative for Germany party, of AfD, as a far-right extremist group, saying that the party has on several occasions attempted to 'undermine the free, democratic' order. Senior members of the Trump administration, including vice-president, JD Vance, have criticised the move, arguing that it undermines freedom of speech. The US has been engaged in a tariff tit-for-tat with the European Union since Trump's second term began in January. Trump has accused the EU of treating its largest trading partner 'very badly' and claimed that the bloc was created for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the US. The two sides began talks on a trade deal in April after Trump paused his so-called reciprocal tariffs. The US president then threatened to levy a 50 per cent tariff on European goods, saying the bloc wasn't moving fast enough towards a deal. Trump later delayed the tariffs until July 9. As talks appeared to be getting back on track, Trump said last week that he would double tariffs on steel and aluminium, including from Europe, to 50 per cent. An EU spokesman said the move added further uncertainty to the global economy and increased costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. Merz's government is intensifying a drive that began under his predecessor Olaf Scholz to bolster the German armed forces and counter the looming Russian threat. In Trump's first term, he frequently singled out Germany for failing to meet the current Nato target of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. The White House is now demanding at least 5 per cent from its allies. Scholz set up a €100 billion ($115 billion) special fund to modernise Germany's military after years of neglect. Merz has endorsed a plan for all Nato countries to aim to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2032. Merz will be hoping to avoid the kind of Oval Office showdown that President Zelensky of Ukraine and President Ramaphosa of South Africa experienced in recent months. Asked about the risk of a White House blow-up, Stefan Kornelius, a spokesman for Merz, said the chancellor was 'well-prepared' for the meeting and that he and Trump have 'built up a decent relationship'. The two leaders have spoken several times by phone either bilaterally or with other European leaders since Merz took office on May 6.
BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Telford modular room manufacturer collapses with job losses
A company that made "room modules and bathroom pods" has gone into administration, putting 141 people out of work.A further 76 employees of Elements (Europe) Limited in Telford have been retained to support the company incurred losses after taking on contracts in East London and Birmingham, the administrators said, and had been unable to find new Birchall, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: "Sadly Elements Europe has not been immune to the headwinds facing the construction sector." The administrators said the company's products had been used in "residential developments, student accommodation, and hotels across the UK".They said it had acted as a subcontractor but in 2021 took on the construction project in Hackney and the Camp Hill project in Birmingham as the main those projects started resulting in losses, the company needed a "significant cash requirement", the administrators said. Mr Birchall said work would be paused on the two projects while attempts were made to rescue the business and administrators would support the staff who were losing their jobs. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
