British business travelers could be riding a direct train from London to Cologne by 2030, after start-up Gemini Trains vowed to break Eurostar’s 32-year hold on the Channel Tunnel with new routes, new stations and a £59 Paris fare.
The British-based company, which says it is backed by a Middle East sovereign wealth fund, wants to run rival services to Paris, including Disneyland Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport, alongside the Cologne route. It then aims to expand to Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, putting three of Germany’s largest commercial centers within rail access to London for the first time.
For companies doing business with the Rhineland, the difference will be significant. Gemini says London to Cologne will take around four hours, similar to Eurostar’s London to Amsterdam service. Today the same journey can take six hours with at least one change.
With capacity at St Pancras under pressure, Gemini plans to make Stratford International its main London hub, with trains also calling at Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, where Eurostar is to stop services in 2020. That will restore a direct link to the mainland for Kent’s business community after more than a decade of lobbying. The company has also signed a ticketing and co-branding partnership with Uber, building on its order for a large number of Siemens high-speed trains announced last year.
Gemini will lease eight 200m electric trains carrying more than 550 passengers each, operating around eleven services a day by 2030 before “rapid expansion”. Eurostar operates approximately 26 daily services from London. Tickets will have flexible pricing, with standard class promising “comfortable seats, good wifi and mood lighting” and business class offering meals and a privacy screen.
For more than 30 years Eurostar has been the only tunnel passenger, and crossings are still about 50 percent. But the ground is changing. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains, which has ordered 12 Alstom trains to be delivered by 2030, has gained access to Temple Mills, the east London depot that is the only site in Britain capable of building and maintaining cross-Channel trains, a decision the regulator said opens up nearly £700 million of investment. Italy’s Trenitalia and Spanish start-up Evolyn are also circling, after the rail regulator opened the door to competition for the Channel Tunnel last year.
Gemini missed out on Temple Mills but said it was talking to the Department for Transport about a possible new depot in Ashford, and would look at sites in Belgium or Germany.
“Sometimes we think of ourselves as the reincarnation of those pioneers of the past,” said Adrian Quinne, CEO. “Despite having a strong team of experts Gemini Trains is a disruptive project that constantly challenges the status quo.”
He added: “The growth forecast for the Channel Tunnel is huge, yet at the moment only 50 per cent of the track space is being used. Eurostar, the monopoly operator, is out of power and very expensive. We will shake things up by providing new routes, new stations, new trains, new interiors, new cheap fares and encouraging people to fly to another plane.”
“For a long time there has been no alternative to Eurostar, which in 32 years has opened almost new routes and actually cut some. The railway is one of the last major industries that has not been freed.”
The one in charge is not standing. Eurostar is preparing to invest £1.7 billion in a fleet of 50 double-decker trains, allowing direct services to Geneva and Frankfurt via Cologne by 2031, and a report sent by the company projects that passenger numbers on London routes will increase by 50 percent over the next decade.
Gwendoline Cazenave, chief executive of Eurostar, said: “The UK now needs a strong vision to match private investment on the table – more depot capacity, a bold extension of St Pancras and a seamless border. Now is the time to act to ensure Britain plays a leading role in Europe’s high-speed rail future.”
For SMEs tired of expensive Paris fares and poor connections in Germany, competition in the corridor will not come soon enough.
