Train operator Eurostar posted a pre-tax profit of €346 million last year. Eurostar attributes the good figures to strict cost management and passenger growth. Eurostar carried 19.5 million passengers last year, up from 2023. The operator plans to launch three new routes by 2030. To do so, Eurostar is significantly expanding its fleet with 50 new high-speed trains.
Eurostar will invest some EUR 2 billion a year in 50 new trains that will be able to run on the operator's entire network. Currently, Eurostar has 51 trains in service: 25 of them are mainly used on connections between London and Brussels or Paris, 26 on connections between Paris and Brussels, Amsterdam or Cologne/Dortmund. The new trains will partly replace the oldest trains in operation. In total, the train fleet will grow to 67 trains.
It is not yet known which manufacturer will supply the new trains. ‘Negotiations are still ongoing,’ Eurostar says.
By 2030, when the new trains come into service, Eurostar plans to introduce 3 new routes: Amsterdam/Brussels-Geneva, London-Frankfurt and London-Geneva. Two of these new routes will go via Brussels.
‘A new golden age of sustainable international travel has arrived,’ says an ambitious Gwendoline Cazenave, CEO of Eurostar Group.
Travel times and frequencies of new connections
Eurostar is mainly hopes to attract more business travellers with the new routes. Both London and Frankfurt are considered major financial centres; Geneva is home to many international institutions.
London - Frankfurt will take 5 hours with services 4 times a day,
London - Geneva 5 hours and 20 minutes (3 times a day),
Amsterdam - Geneva 6 hours 20 minutes (once a day)
Brussels - Geneva 4 hours 20 minutes (3 times a day).
Now active in 5 countries
Eurostar currently operates in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. The best-performing routes last year were:
London - Paris (+ 280,000 passengers compared to 2023).
London - Brussels (+ 250,000 passengers).
Paris - Brussels (+ 160,000 travellers).
Paris - Netherlands (+ 140,000 travellers).
Last year's good figures are also related to last summer's Paris Olympics.
Combination train-airline
The railway company is also betting on an increase in air passengers. To this end, it has signed an agreement with airline alliance SkyTeam (Air France and KLM). This should allow combined ‘train & plane tickets’. The details of that agreement have yet to be worked out.
Eurostar already works with KLM, with travellers from Brussels or Antwerp already able to buy a combined train and air ticket, with a transfer in Amsterdam-Schiphol.