Eurostar announces plans for two new routes to coincide with arrival of new trains

Eurostar has said it plans to run direct trains from London St Pancras to both Frankfurt and Geneva once its new trains have entered service.

The international operator also plans to increase the number of trains to Rotterdam and Amsterdam to four in February September 9 and five in mid-December.

Eurostar has made the announcement alongside the publication of its 2024 financial results, in which it reported earnings of €346 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization expenses.

It also said passenger numbers across the whole group (which includes Eurostar Red services from Paris to Brussels and Amsterdam) rose 5% to 19.5 million last year.

This included increases to and from St Pancras by 280,000 on both its Paris and Amsterdam routes and 250,000 to and from Brussels.

Eurostar also told RAIL it had its busiest day ever on Friday May 2 this year when 23,521 passenger journeys were made between London and Paris.

The operator has a target of 30m annual journeys across its whole network, while London St Pancras Highspeed, which owns HS1, is predicting annual international journeys to reach 35m by 2040. The 2023/24 figure was 11m.

It has also refinanced its debt (which it says is down to the legacy of Covid and investing €90m in its e320 trains), reducing the figure from €963.7m to €650 million.

The announcement is the first time the operator has given more details of its expansion plans, beyond its intention to order 50 new trains.

Eurostar has repeatedly mentioned the order, and that it hasn’t been able to provide the Office of Rail and Road more details of how it plans to grow as part of the regulator’s process to decide if a second operator can access Temple Mills International Depot.

The fifty new trains are due to be ordered towards the end of 2025, with the first expected to enter service in 2030. The new routes to Frankfurt and Geneva (and an Amsterdam/Brussels-Geneva service) are due to follow once the trains are in service.

Earlier this year the UK and Swiss governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the possibility of a direct service between the two countries. A working group is due to be set up later this year.

The new trains will allow for the retirement of the eight Class 373 (e300) trains to and from St Pancras and Thalys PBA and PBKA sets on its continental routes.

Once the order is in place Eurostar will have 67 trains made up of its 50 new units and 17 Siemens-built Class 374 (e320) sets across its network. It currently has 51 trains in total.

Deutsche Bahn ran one of its ICE units into London St Pancras in 2010 with the aim of starting Frankfurt and Amsterdam services by 2013 that would also serve Brussels, Cologne and Rotterdam. However, the plans failed to come to fruition.