Sustainable Travel Soars: Will Eurostar Expand Its Green Routes?

Eurostar is considering adding more routes from London as it prepares to purchase 50 new trains.

“There is huge demand for our services and we have big European ambitions,” CEO Gwendoline Cazenave told the Financial Times on Thursday.

She stated that Eurostar is “definitely” considering new routes from London to Europe, in addition to its existing services between London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels.

A new fleet could mean “new European routes”, Cazenave added, “I think by the end of the year or early 2025 we will be able to say more.”

The cross-channel passenger rail service is in talks with manufacturers about replacing some of its older trains. In addition, the new trains will help increase the fleet’s size from 51 to 67.

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The company will select a manufacturer based on how quickly the new trains can be delivered, and it expects them to be operational by the early 2030s.

More passengers could mean bigger stations

Eurostar’s expansion plans follow the company’s announcement that its annual revenue exceeded €2 billion for the first time last year. Passenger numbers rose to nearly 19 million.

Demand for sustainable travel has prompted the company to prepare for a potential boom. It anticipates 30 million passengers per year by 2030.

The Eurostar CEO also stated that she expects St Pancras and Paris Gare du Nord to be redesigned within the next five years to make more space. Earlier this year, the rail operator in charge of St Pancras announced plans to increase the hub’s capacity from 1,800 to 2,700 passengers per hour.

The Eurostar terminal in Amsterdam is also being expanded. Currently, capacity is limited to 200 people, but by the end of the project, 600 people will be able to board a Eurostar train at once.

However, Cazenave stated that the company has no plans to reopen its Ebbsfleet and Ashford stations in Kent, UK, which were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.