London St Pancras plans 'direct train routes between UK and Germany'
In future, passengers in the UK may be able to book direct trains to cities in Germany, Switzerland and France, and vice versa.
London St Pancras Highspeed and Eurotunnel owner Getlink have penned proposals for a range of new international routes, including direct connections to Germany, as part of plans to boost passengers at the long-distance rail station.
Getlink has floated Bordeaux, Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, Marseille and Zurich as potential destinations.
No official timeline has been set for launching the new routes, but a report by The London Economic suggests new services wouldn't likely begin until 2030. The operators would need some years to acquire trains and secure access to tracks on both sides of the channel.
Currently, Eurostar is the only rail operator running services across the Channel. These run to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
If passengers want to travel to Germany, their best option is usually to travel to Brussels and then change to an additional long-distance service - such as a night train - to cities like Frankfurt and Berlin.
Back in 2022, the Daily Mail reported that Eurostar was working on extending its existing services to offer a range of direct routes to German cities like Cologne and Düsseldorf. However, nothing was officially announced at the time and since then no further details have emerged.
However, as part of the new agreement, Paris-based Getlink is pushing companies to develop cross-border connections from the UK to a range of new European destinations.
According to the BBC, Virgin Group and Evolyn are and develop direct UK-Germany routes for the first time.
Virgin told reporters establishing new connections would be a "huge undertaking", but said the UK-France routes was "ripe for change with plenty of room and potential for new competition at St Pancras and through the Tunnel".
'Faster and more affordable'
The Getlink collaboration comes after London St Pancras Highspeed set out a number of proposals for drastically boosting passenger numbers at the station. According to the recommendations, St Pancras could support up to 5,000 international travellers per hour rather than the current 1,800.
On Thursday, the station operator announced that it has signed an agreement with Getlink to reduce journey times, improve timetable coordination, and incentivise more trains and new routes.
These adjustments are designed to make travel across the English Channel "faster, more affordable and more convenient," the statement read.
According to Robert Sinclair, CEO of London St Pancras Highspeed, the two companies want to "realise a future where high-speed rail is the preferred option for travelling to Europe".
With many European cities reachable by train in under six hours, international rail services could offer an attractive alternative to short-haul flights, the companies claim.
"As we see demand for international rail travel grow, London St. Pancras Highspeed and Eurotunnel have an important role to play... to encourage new and existing train operators to expand capacity and launch new destinations unlocking the potential of a fully connected Europe," Sinclair added.
The Local approached St Pancras Highspeed for further information but had not yet heard back at the time of publishing.
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