Plans are underway to almost triple the capacity of London’s St Pancras station, which will bring about new train services to European destinations like Frankfurt, Zurich and Milan.
According to The Times, London St Pancras Highspeed (formerly HS1) has agreed to work with Getlink – the people in charge of the Channel Tunnel – to ‘grow international rail connectivity between the UK and Europe’.
The move will bring about access to new routes in countries like Switzerland, Italy and Germany, with regular services that could accommodate up to 5,000 passengers an hour.
Getlink have said that direct services could serve Frankfurt and Cologne as well as Geneva and Zurich. Eventually services could reach as far as Milan.
The company aim to compete with the current cross-Channel route, operated by Eurostar since 1994.
Eurostar offers direct trains only to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. It also runs seasonal ski services to Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the French Alps.
The service originated in London’s Waterloo station, before moving to St Pancras in 2007.
Demand for international train travel has been on the rise over the last few years and talks of bringing new train companies to the tunnel to increase services have been going on for quite some time.
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Evolyn – a new company set up by investors in National Express – are among the rival operators seeking to capitalise on the station’s expansion.
The Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994, has significant spare capacity. Its designers predicted that by this year traffic would be double the present level.
If everything goes as planned, the new services probably wouldn’t begin until at least 2030. Potential operators would need time to acquire trains and get permission to operate on both sides of the channel.
A signed agreement between London St Pancras Highspeed and Getlink includes a commitment to shorten journey times, better co-ordinate timetables and run more trains each hour for international services in both directions.
It said that the “enhancements will make rail travel faster, more efficient and widely available”.
Yann Leriche, the chief executive of Getlink, said: “We are keen to drive forward attractive opportunities for low-carbon [travel] with a range of new destinations in Germany, Switzerland and France. This partnership with London St Pancras Highspeed is essential for accelerating this momentum.”