Eurostar to challenge more airline routes

New trains for big European expansion: potential for up to 10 more European destinations says company

In a direct challenge to airlines, Eurostar is looking at running services from its base at St Pancras, London, into the Netherlands, Germany, southern France and Switzerland.

Having effectively killed off air competition from London to Brussels and Paris, with shorter times the operator is now looking to consolidate its dominance in Europe.

The high-speed train operator has effectively killed off the air travel market between London, Paris and Brussels since starting services between the three cities in 1994, offering much faster journey times between the city centres.

After some teething problems in the early years, it has now established an 80 per cent market share between the three cities, carrying 9.7m passengers a year. The time savings offered by the rail link were boosted by the full opening of the high-speed rail line between the Channel tunnel and London, along with its St Pancras International terminus, in 2007.

Nicolas Petrovic, chief executive of Eurostar, is planning to use the liberalisation of European rail markets to launch services across western Europe to destinations including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Cologne, Lyon, Marseille and Geneva.

"By 2016 and 2017 we would like people when they are thinking about travelling to these cities to consider taking Eurostar rather than flying," he told the UK Financial Times.

Eurostar is set to lose its monopoly on high-speed services through the Channel tunnel, with Deutsche Bahn planning to enter the market by the end of 2015.

Mr Petrovich, who took over the top job at the high-speed train operator two years ago, believes the German state rail operator will be joined by at least one other rival and sees the competition as an opportunity and more of a threat to airlines.

"The key growth area for us is to take market share off airlines and if more [train] operators come in it will grow the whole market for high-speed rail," he said. In the longer term, Eurostar is looking to set up a second hub, with Brussels the most likely candidate.

Eurostar’s planned expansion is timed to coincide with the arrival of 900-seater trains, which it is buying from Germany’s Siemens, from the end of 2014. The €600m order for 10 Velaro-D trains caused controversy in France as Eurostar became the first SNCF affiliate to order trains from a rival to France’s Alstom.

Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail operator, has put back plans to launch services between London and Frankfurt by two years. The decision follows delays in the development of the new train that the company is planning to run through the Channel tunnel.

The first services are now expected to start in December 2015, frustrating Deutsche Bahn’s ambitions to become the first competitor on cross-Channel rail services to Eurostar.

Deutsche Bahn was planning to operate from London to Frankfurt, Cologne and Amsterdam via Brussels, which means the train would have to cope with five different national signalling systems as well as the one used in the Channel tunnel.

Siemens said recently that the delay in delivery of the Velaro-D would not affect the Eurostar order.

"We are optimistic we can deliver those trains on time," the company said. Eurostar is expected the first trains to arrive in 2014 and said it "expected the delivery to be on schedule".

Valere Tjolle

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