Trenitalia wants to compete with Eurostar on Paris-London route
The announcement by the Italian railway operator follows statements by Richard Branson's Virgin Group last month that it hopes to begin offering high-speed rail services on the route in 2029.
Trenitalia said on Tuesday it plans to invest €1 billion to launch its Paris-London service, also by 2029.
Stefano Antonio Donnarumma, head of the FS Group that includes Trenitalia, said the project is part of the company's strategic plan to be a key player in a competitive and sustainable European rail network.
"High-speed rail networks are the backbone of efficient and environmentally friendly mobility, and by expanding our presence on key corridors, we are not just investing in infrastructure and innovation, but also in the future of European transport," Donnarumma said in a statement.
"More competition will help to create a more efficient and customer-oriented industry, offering a real alternative to air travel," he added.
Trenitalia already operates routes in both France and Britain and the company said this provides "an important competitive advantage to enter this strategic corridor", referring to the Paris-London route.
Advertisement
The announcement comes a week after Britain's Office of Rail and Road (ORR) opened access to a maintenance depot along the high-speed Paris-London route to other firms, removing a hurdle to competitors offering services.
READ MORE:
Paris to Marseille from €27: Trenitalia opens summer train ticket sale
Dutch operator Heuro and Spain's Evolyn have also expressed interest in competing on the Paris-London route against Eurostar, which is often criticised for its high ticket prices.
Trenitalia said it had recently signed a cooperation agreement with Evolyn but did not provide details.
Germany's Deutsche Bahn ran one of its ICE high-speed trains through the Channel tunnel in 2013 but its plans to launch services in 2016 never reached fruition.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Jonathan Anderson becomes Dior's overall artistic director
The Northern Irish designer was named as head of the women's line, LVMH said in a post on social media, following last week's departure of Italian peer Maria Grazia Chiuri. Anderson had already been named as artistic director of Dior's men's collection in April, and will now become the first person to run both collections at the iconic French brand, the second-biggest in LVMH's fashion stable. Anderson, 40, quit Loewe in March month after more than a decade in which he turned around the fortunes of the heritage Spanish brand. An influential tastemaker with many A-list fans, Anderson made the previously rather sleepy label, best known for its handbags, hot. Fashion mogul Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH conglomerate owns both Dior and Loewe, broke the news at a shareholders meeting in Paris. There had been much speculation that Anderson, renowned for his creative flights of fancy, might take over both Dior's men's and women's collections, which some observers had seen as needing fresh impetus.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Is Trump deterring European tourists to US? Not so fast
The number of visitors to the United States from Western Europe in March fell by 17 percent from the same month a year earlier, but then picked up 12 percent in April, according to the US tourism office. The German Travel Association (DRV) said the number of Germans going to the United States dropped 28 percent in March, but then bounced back by 14 percent in April. The association's spokesperson, Torsten Schaefer, said that Easter holidays fell later this year than in 2024, which might have impacted the figures. "There're practically no requests in recent months to change or cancel reservations," Schaefer said. However, he noted "a rise in queries about entry requirements into the United States". At the end of March, several European countries urged their nationals to review their travel documents for the United States, following several mediatised cases of Europeans being held on arrival then deported. Anecdotally, there are signs of Europeans opting not to visit Trump's America. "The country I knew no longer exists," said Raphael Gruber, a 60-year-old German doctor who has been taking his family to Cape Cod in Massachusetts every summer since 2018. "Before, when you told the immigration officer you were there for whale-watching, that was a good reason to come. But now, they are afraid of everything that comes from outside," he told AFP. Referring to invasive electronic checks at the US borders, he added: "I don't want to buy a 'burner' phone just to keep my privacy". In Britain, Matt Reay, a 35-year-old history teacher from Northamptonshire, said he had scratched the United States off his list, preferring to go to South America, where his "money would probably be better spent". "It feels like, to be honest, that there's a culture that's built in the US in the last kind of 12 months, where as a foreign visitor, I don't really feel like I'm that welcome anyway," he said. Reay said he felt "insulted" by both Trump's tariffs on British exports to the United States and comments by Trump's vice president, JD Vance, about Britain as "a random country". Trump's public belittling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House visit in February was also "outrageous", he said. According to the US tourism office, however, the number of British visitors to the United States in April rose 15 percent year-on-year, after a 14 percent drop in March. Oxford Economics, an economics monitoring firm, attributed the March decline partly to the Easter dates this year, along with a stronger US dollar at the time that made the United States a more costly destination. But it mainly pointed to "polarising rhetoric and policy actions by the Trump administration, as well as concerns around tighter border and immigration policies". Cheaper flights Didier Arino, head of the French travel consultancy Protourisme, said April traffic to the United States might have picked up because European airlines were offering discounted flights. "You can find flights, especially for New York, at 600 euros ($680)," he said. In Germany, Muriel Wagner, 34, said she was not putting off a summer trip to Boston to see a friend at Harvard -- a US university in a legal and ideological struggle with Trump's administration. "I've been asked if the political situation and trade war with the US has affected our trip," the PhD student said in Frankfurt. But "you can't let yourself be intimidated", she said, adding that she was keen to discuss the tensions with Americans on their home turf. Protourisme's Arino said that, as "the mood has sunk" regarding the United States, potential tourists were rethinking a visit. On top of the "the financial outlay, being insulted by the US administration for being European, that really robs you of the desire" to go there, he said. He estimated that the "Trump effect" would cut the number of French tourists going to the United States this year by a quarter. A body representing much of the French travel sector, Entreprises du Voyage, said the number of French visitors to America dropped eight percent in March, and a further 12 percent in April. It estimated that summer departures to the United States would drop by 11 percent. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, covering major tourism operators, the US tourism sector -- already reeling from Canadians and Mexicans staying away -- could lose $12.5 billion in spending by foreign visitors this year. kap-lep-ajb-zap/jbo/rmb/js © 2025 AFP
Fashion Network
6 hours ago
- Fashion Network
Essilorluxottica to buy Optegra eyecare clinics
Essilorluxottica has entered an agreement to buy Optegra ophthalmic clinics from MidEuropa, as the Franco-Italian eyewear group aims to expand in the medical technology industry, the companies said on Friday. Financial details of the transaction, which is expected to close later this year, were not disclosed. The Optegra group operates a network of over 70 eye hospitals and diagnostic facilities in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands under the Optegra, Lexum and Iris brands. It serves both publicly reimbursed and private-pay patients, providing treatments and vision correction procedures such as cataract surgery, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma treatments, refractive lens replacement and laser eye surgery. "With the acquisition of Optegra, we are stepping into a new frontier – one where comprehensive eyecare, advanced diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and surgical treatments come together in one seamless platform", Essilorluxottica CEO Francesco Milleri and deputy CEO Paul du Saillant said in a statement. Essilorluxottica was advised by Rothschild for the transaction. It is aiming to expand beyond its traditional lenses and sunglasses products, into complementary sectors characterised by a strong technological component, such as Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses or hearing aids applied to glasses.
