Eurostar plans services to Frankfurt and Geneva to tap demand for greener travel

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Eurostar plans to launch new services from London to Frankfurt and Geneva to meet rising business demand for greener travel, as it faces the long-term prospect of competition on its cross-channel services.

The rail group unveiled a plan for expansion into the two key European finance hubs, including new services from Amsterdam and Brussels to Geneva, with an indeterminate timing of the “early 2030s”.

Eurostar last year said it aimed to invest €2bn in 50 new trains, expanding its fleet to 67, but has not yet confirmed the order of the trains. It said the new services would be launched following the introduction of the trains.

For further destinations to be put into service, the rail monopoly would need governments to agree to install expensive and cumbersome security and border infrastructure in Frankfurt and Geneva.

The complexity of servicing cross borders has meant that despite launching more than 30 years ago Eurostar only travels to three major destinations from London: Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris. 

“Until we see what trains they order, and when those will be delivered, we cannot call these ‘plans’ but more like vague ideas,” said Jon Worth, a cross-border rail consultant. 

The difficulties of operating international rail travel and a lack of capacity on the cross channel line have also slowed reciprocal efforts to challenge Eurostar’s existing services. 

A total 19.5mn customers travelled on Eurostar in 2024, up about 5 per cent from 2023, boosted by the Paris Olympics. The rail group said it had carried a total of almost 8mn passengers this year to the end of May, up 6.4 per cent from the same period in 2023. Bookings by corporate customers stood at 677,000 passengers, up about 58 per cent over the same period.

Geneva and Frankfurt were chosen as its new destinations as they are “big finance hubs [and] European cities” which “needed to be connected” to London, Gwendoline Cazenave, chief executive of Eurostar told the FT.

The number of business travellers the rail operator carries were now “at the same level as before Covid”, said Cazenave. 

“Among corporate travellers we are really seeing growth because of sustainability objectives,” she said. “Companies really want their staff to travel by train.”

Deloitte and BCG were among Eurostar’s biggest corporate customers, the rail operator said, as they encouraged staff to travel by rail where it was an alternative to help meet sustainability goals.

JPMorgan decided to locate its main EU trading hub in Paris in 2021 after Brexit, in part because of the convenience of the direct Eurostar from London, the bank said. It now has 1,000 employees in Paris — four times more than before Brexit. It does not have a “rail first” policy, but staff were encouraged to choose the most “sustainable way” of travel, it said.

Eurostar estimated the travel time from London to Frankfurt and Geneva would be about five hours. It is planning on four services daily to Frankfurt and three daily to Geneva.

“We are seeing more willingness to travel longer by train . . . 10 or 15 years ago people didn’t want to go further than three hours by train. That has now increased to four and it is moving towards five hours,” said Cazenave. 

On the challenge of increased competition, Cazenave said: “At the end of the day, the demand is huge.”

Additional reporting by Ellesheva Kissin