19-07-2025
When will there be a direct rail link from London to Switzerland?
Q How likely do you think it is that we'll get direct trains to Switzerland within the next few years? Geneva or Zurich would be great.
Rebecca Halpern
A Your question is pertinent because there has been much talk this week about extended European links from London St Pancras International. At present, the only options for travellers on Eurostar from the UK are to Lille and Paris in France, the Belgian capital Brussels, and the Dutch cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Eurostar previously served many more destinations, as far south as Avignon and Marseille, but a combination of Brexit and Covid put paid to anything beyond the 'core' routes. These are highly profitable, and, with limited capacity at the St Pancras hub, Eurostar is content to continue with the same arrangement until the end of the decade.
According to briefings from the UK government, new routes to Germany could open as soon as 2030. But the much-trumpeted proposal for direct trains between London and Berlin looks entirely fanciful; the journey would take nine hours, and the cost would be ferocious.
Switzerland, though, is on the agenda for Eurostar. The company says it will launch a rail link from London to Zurich in the 'early 2030s'. The journey is expected to take five hours and 20 minutes. Announcing the plan, Eurostar's chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, promised: 'A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here.'
Well, it will be, at some yet-to-be-determined date in the future. I pressed Eurostar to ask whether the link could actually be running by 2030, and was told that this is a possibility – though rail insiders to whom I have spoken say that it's a most ambitious estimate.
Other operators are seeking to move into the UK-EU rail market. If any are allowed in, initially they will focus firmly on the richest pickings: London to Paris. If they extend beyond that, I believe the next targets could be Brussels and Antwerp, and possibly a combination of Charles de Gaulle airport and Disneyland Paris. Zurich and Geneva will be way down the pecking order.
At a best guess, I believe that Eurostar will begin London-Cologne-Frankfurt trains in around 2032, with a Zurich link being introduced a year or two after that.
Q I work for a big airport and am always getting it in the neck from friends and family about drop-off fees at the airport terminal. The news this week that almost nowhere else in the world has heard of such a thing is likely to make matters worse. Can you come up with a good riposte?
Name supplied
A The UK is, as ministers might say, world-leading in the field of charging for dropping off passengers outside the door of an airport. According to the RAC, 11 of the 20 biggest UK airports have increased their 'kiss and fly' charges since last summer. The field is currently led by Bristol, Gatwick, Leeds Bradford, Southampton and Stansted, all charging £7, while London City is now the only major airport with no fee.
Charges began at Birmingham airport as a response to the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport in 2007, which required all terminals to rework their access system – basically, putting in barriers to prevent anyone from driving an explosives-laden vehicle into an airport. The West Midlands hub wanted to offset some of the cost. As it became clear that passengers were prepared to pay it, the idea spread quickly across the UK, although Gatwick and Heathrow were late to the party, only imposing the charge after the financial disaster of Covid.
I think the airports can reasonably cite three lines of defence. The first, and most robust, is that it encourages passengers to arrive by public transport. For well-connected airports such as Birmingham, Gatwick and Manchester, this is particularly true. Next, with most airports breaking records in passenger numbers, it helps them to manage what would otherwise be difficult traffic. Finally, the cash – worth tens of millions each year at bigger airports – helps them to bring in new routes, to the traveller's benefit. The UK isn't just the world centre for drop-off charges, it is also the country with the most competitive airline business in Europe, and possibly the world.
Finally, in case you get a 'but London City doesn't have one...' challenge: the Docklands airport is very different from the norm. Because most passengers are on short business trips and don't have heavy luggage, they don't take more than a few seconds to exit the car, and so congestion is not an issue. Also, the usual deal is that each airport has a remote drop-off location that is free, often walkable, and has a shuttle bus link. That would be impossible in the constrained road links around London City.
Q I am flying to Bergerac in southwest France for a week's holiday, and am wondering about possible excursions from there – and whether I will need a rental car for them?
Robin S
A Bergerac, on a fold of the Dordogne River about 80 miles east of Bordeaux, is a lovely place to stay; the town is large enough to have some history and life, but calm even in the height of summer. The obvious city day trip is to Bordeaux, which will be most rewarding for its art and architecture. And you won't need a car: trains run roughly once an hour west from Bergerac, taking about 75 minutes each way.
In the opposite direction, I am a fan of the 'hanging gardens of Marqueyssac' (les jardins suspendus de Marqueyssac). These beautifully cultivated gardens are in a spectacular setting above the right bank of the Dordogne. Across the river, the 13th-century chateau of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle is impressive, especially for the way it has been brought back to life by Kleber Rossillon. He and his synonymous company specialise in heritage development; think of it as a private-sector National Trust.
To complete a triangle, the village of Beynac, back on the right bank, is a lovely village. La Petite Tonnelle on the main street is the place to eat, if you can get a table. Wander to the hilltop castle, too.
The excursion is tricky without a car. Every couple of hours, there is a train from Bergerac to the nearby town of Sarlat, taking around an hour. But you will still be an expensive (€40/£35 or so) taxi ride away from your destination. So I suggest you rent a car for the day. Asking locally, you may well find a garage that will let you have one for around €75 – this is likely to be less expensive, and less hassle, than picking up a car from Bergerac airport.
Q Why are there two flights from Newcastle to Malaga, on separate airlines, departing only half an hour apart? Surely there is no need for two flights that close together. Wouldn't it be sensible for one of them to fly later to provide another option?
Poppy C
A On Fridays and Saturdays this summer, Jet2 departs from Newcastle to Malaga at 7.05am, with Ryanair setting off on the same route within half an hour. There are no further flights to the Costa del Sol hub until the following morning. I agree it looks strange, and that the traveller would be better served by spacing them out: one in the morning, the other in the afternoon (allowing an evening return from Malaga, giving an extra day away). But each airline has a good reason for flying as it does.
Both airlines want to get their Newcastle-based aircraft up and flying as soon as possible at the start of the day. Both typically want their planes to fly two 'rotations' (flights there and back) in a day. One is a shorter trip, such as the 1,275-mile haul to Malaga, typically taking slightly under three hours each way. The other may be a Canary Islands journey, covering more than 4,000 miles there and back.
The shorter the first flight, the less likelihood of delays being incurred – simply because there is less scope for things to go wrong.
So Ryanair typically deploys its Boeing 737s at Newcastle to go to mainland Spain in the morning – Alicante or Malaga – and Tenerife, Las Palmas or Fuerteventura in the afternoon.
Jet2 has a much wider range of flights from Newcastle, including to Italy, the Greek islands, Malta, Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as the Spanish mainland and islands. The morning Malaga flight is typically followed by a longish trip – such as 2,000 miles each way to Antalya in southern Turkey.
Pertinently, the two airlines are serving different markets. Most Jet2 passengers are on package holidays, and would not naturally be tempted by Ryanair. Conversely, Ryanair is the friend of the independent traveller. So while it is annoying to have to get up at silly o'clock because the only flights from Newcastle to Malaga on some days are before breakfast, there are reasons.
