Eurostar And Deutsche Bahn Advance Plans For Direct London to Germany High-Speed Trains
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on Global Railway Review.
This is the sub-heading.
Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn have signed an MoU to pursue direct high-speed trains linking London with Cologne and Frankfurt from early 2030s
These three paragraph add some extra details.
Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn (DB) have formally begun work on establishing a direct high-speed train link between London and Germany after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in early December. The development aims to introduce non-stop long-distance passenger services between the UK and major German cities including Cologne and Frankfurt, potentially from the early 2030s.
The service would cut journey times to around four hours between London and Cologne and just over five hours to Frankfurt, delivering a direct city centre-to-city centre connection with no interchange. The routes would use Eurostar’s forthcoming Celestia fleet, a double-deck high-speed train offering 20% additional capacity and up to 50% energy savings.
This announcement comes just over a month after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) approved Virgin Trains’ access to the Temple Mills International depot in East London, adding fresh momentum to plans for new cross-border services through the Channel Tunnel.
These are my further thoughts.
Is There A Brussels And Frankfurt High Speed Line?
I asked Google AI, the question in the title of this section and received this reply.
Yes, direct high-speed trains run between Brussels and Frankfurt. The journey takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes, operated by Deutsche Bahn using ICE (Intercity Express) trains.
Route and Service Details
Train Type: German ICE high-speed trains.
Travel Time: Fastest trips take roughly 3 hours and 19 minutes.
Frequency: Around 7 direct trains run each day.
Key Stops: Liège-Guillemins, Aachen Hbf, and Cologne (Köln) Hbf.
Note.
- It looks like the London and Brussels service is being extended to Frankfurt.
- There doesn’t seem to be much new infrastructure.
- Eurostar currently takes seven minutes under two hours between London and Brussels.
Using the same Celestia trains by both Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn surely makes sense operationally.
Do German High Speed Trains Run Between Frankfurt And Berlin?
I asked Google AI, the question in the title of this section and received this reply.
Yes, German high-speed ICE (Intercity Express) trains run direct routes between Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof and Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The fastest non-stop services take about 3 hours and 43 minutes, reaching speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph) over a distance of roughly 262 miles (422 km).
Route and Schedule Details
Frequency: Direct trains run hourly or more during peak times, with dozens of daily departures.
Speed/Type: Operated by Deutsche Bahn, standard ICE trains and select high-speed ICE Sprinter services manage the corridor.
Stops: Many services run non-stop or make brief stops at major hubs like Erfurt or Halle depending on the specific schedule.
Note.
- A London and Berlin service would only require one change of train at Frankfurt.
- There doesn’t seem to be much new infrastructure.
With a good cross-platform interchange in Frankfurt, I estimate that the journey could be slightly less than nine hours.
Onward To Warsaw And Beyond
This is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for Rail Baltica.
Rail Baltica is an under-construction rail infrastructure project that is intended to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network. The project envisages a continuous rail link for passenger and freight services with stations from Tallinn (Estonia) to Warsaw (Poland), via Pärnu (Estonia), Riga (Latvia) and Kaunas (Lithuania), with two branches extending from the main line towards Riga International Airport and Vilnius (Lithuania). Its total length in the Baltic states is 870 kilometres (540 mi), with 213 kilometres (132 mi) in Estonia, 265 kilometres (165 mi) in Latvia, and 392 kilometres (244 mi) in Lithuania.
It is an ambitious project.
This map shows the routes.
Note.
- I believe that the map is in Latvian.
- Rail Baltica is shown as starting from Berlin in Germany.
- A possible extension to Helsinki is shown, which would require a tunnel.
- Ukraine is shown in the South-East corner of the map.
- Part of Belarus is above Ukraine, with part of Russia above it.
If Ukraine joins the EU, then I’m certain that there could be a Warsaw-Kiev branch.
When Will Rail Baltica Be Open Between Warsaw and Tallinn?
I asked Google AI, the question in the title of this section and received this reply.
The Rail Baltica high-speed line between Warsaw and Tallinn is scheduled for an initial operational opening by 2030. According to the European Commission’s phased milestones, a functional single-track, electrified connection from Tallinn through Latvia and Lithuania down to the Polish border will be completed by 2030, enabling initial passenger services.
Project Timeline & Phasing
2030 Target: Completion of Phase 1, providing a continuous single-track operational line across the Baltic states connecting to Poland.
Full Buildout (Double-Track): Full expansion to a double-track network will continue past 2030, dependent on subsequent funding availability.
Public Sentiment: Opinions on the r/BalticStates subreddit are mixed, with some observers skeptical about meeting the tight 2030 deadline due to previous setbacks, while others note visible construction acceleration driven by EU oversight.
Expected Travel Benefits
Travel Time: Reduces the journey between Tallinn and Warsaw to just over 6 hours.
I would certainly love to be able to ride a train from London St. Pancras to Tallinn.
Putin Won’t Like It!
He probably believes that all railways East of Berlin should be Russian gauge.
But what are the odds, he has an untimely accident?
Conclusion
I believe that if Eurostar to Frankfurt can create a rail route between the UK and Finland and the Baltic States, it will create large amounts of growth in tourism all over Europe.
There are also two projects with similar completion dates.
- Eurostar to Germany aims to introduce non-stop long-distance passenger services between the UK and major German cities including Cologne and Frankfurt, potentially from the early 2030s.
- Completion of Phase 1 of Rail Baltica, providing a continuous single-track operational line across the Baltic states connecting to Poland has a 2030 target.
I believe competition between the two groups will mean both are on time.
Getlink To Enable The Doubling Of Direct High Speed Rail Services From The UK Over The Next 10 Years Via The Channel Tunnel
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Getlink.
This is the sub-heading.
This doubling will be achieved by reducing the “time to market” from 10 to 5 years for operators who intend to launch new services between London and Cologne, London and Frankfurt, London and Geneva, London and Zurich.
These three paragraphs introduce the press release.
On 6 May 2024, Eurotunnel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Getlink, will celebrate 30 years since the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the introduction of the first LeShuttle and LeShuttle Freight rail services linking Folkestone (Kent)to Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais). This year will also mark the 30th anniversary of the first direct rail links between London and Paris, and London and Brussels.
Three decades after this pioneering step forward in Europe’s rail network, and in the wake of the development of the recently introduced link between London and Amsterdam, Eurotunnel is aiming to further accelerate the low-carbon mobility of people between the UK and continental Europe by doubling the number of new direct destinations from London via the Channel Tunnel over the next 10 years.
The reduction in the time needed to launch new services to just 5 years is the fruit of the work by Eurotunnel, the infrastructure manager and keystone of the cross-Channel high-speed links, in cooperation with partners from across the European ecosystem (infrastructure managers, authorities, manufacturers, regulators).
Getlink will use these four steps towards simplification.
- Market research carried out by Eurotunnel to identify destinations.
- Standardisation of Tunnel regulations with the relevant authorities.
- Integration of tunnel specific criteria with manufacturers in their standard rolling stock offering.
- Preparing cross-Channel connections with network operators and stations.
It will be so good to have more services between London and Europe.
World’s Largest Fleet Of Fuel Cell Trains’ Ordered
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
Following a European tender, the Fahma rolling stock subsidiary of Rhein-Main transport authority RMV has awarded Alstom a contract to supply and support a fleet of 27 fuel cell multiple-units.
These are a few points from the rest of the article.
- The trains are Alstom Coradia iLint.
- Range on hydrogen is up to 500 miles with a top speed of 87 mph.
- Each train will have 160 seats.
- The order is worth around €500million.
- 25 years of maintenance is included.
- Hydrogen will be supplied by Höchst KG.
- The trains will be delivered in time for the December 2022 timetable change.
This is said about the refuelling.
The refuelling point will be located at the Höchst industrial park. ‘With its existing hydrogen infrastructure, Industriepark Höchst is an ideal filling station location for fuel cell vehicles’, said Dr Joachim Kreysing, Managing Director of Infraserv Höchst. ‘The operation of the hydrogen filling station for trains as a supplement to the tanking facilities for buses and trucks fits in perfectly with our concept’.
These routes will be converted from diesel to hydrogen.
- RB11 Frankfurt-Höchst – Bad Soden, – 25 minutes
- RB12 Frankfurt – Königstein, – 36 minutes
- RB15 Frankfurt – Bad Homburg – Brandoberndorf – 83 minutes
- RB16 Friedrichsdorf – Friedberg – 23 minutes
Services look to be half-hourly.
Only one is a longer route.
A Simple Plan
It is a fairly simple plan with probably a low risk.
This Google Map shows Industriepark Höchst.
Note the Frankfurt Höchst station and Infraserv Höchst.
It seems to be all very convenient.
Eurostar To And From Amsterdam
On Tuesday I took Eurostar to Amsterdam.
The trip took three hours and forty-one minutes with stops at Brussels and Rotterdam.
The Brussels stop allows passengers to leave and join, but Rotterdam only allows passengers to leave.
As the number of passengers grow between London and Amsterdam, could there come a time, when some or all Amsterdam services don’t need to stop at Brussels.
If so, how much time would this save?
Current stops by Eurostar take the following times.
- Ashford – 9 mins.
- Calais – 3 mins
- Ebbsfleet – 6 mins.
- Lille – 14 minutes
These times have been calculated by looking at similar services that have different stopping patterns.
Note that, Calais and Ebbsfleet are faster as they are stops on the direct route.
So I suspect that if an Amsterdam service could go through Brussels without stopping, something between 9-12 minutes could be saved.
This could bring the journey time between London and Amsterdam closer to three and a half hours.
What would that time do for sales of tickets?
Eurostar Hold A Lot Of Cards
Eurostar are in a very good position on this route.
- They could run a flagship express service twice a day for those in a hurry.
- This could be backed up by slightly slower services calling at places from or to where passengers want to go. These would include Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Antwerp.
- Immigration and security clearance is probably under thirty minutes at the start of the journey and perhaps ten at the end.
- Immigration and security times will be reduced, as procedures get better.
- St. Pancras, Rotterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Centraal are all very well-connected stations.
- Extra services can be added as demand dictates.
- Eurostar is more diabled-friendly and those in smaller scooters can drive in!
- They could extend some Brussels services to Amsterdam.
- I estimate that just under 4,000,000 people live within the North and South Circular Roads and have easy access by public transport to St. Pancras.
They can also create a very intelligent booking computer system, that optimises their services. Budget airlines have been doing this for years.
What About The Airlines?
Note the numbers of passengers who fly.
According to Skyscanner, there are upwards of two hundred flights a day between London and Amsterdam. An Airbus A320 holds 150 passengers, so if there are only a hundred per flight, that is 20,000 passengers per day.
Looking at the 6th of June, Eurostar are running nine trains between London and Brussels. As each new Class 374 train can hold 900 passengers, that is around 8,000 seats per day.
So the airlines have much more capacity than Eurostar and they can add and remove it, easier than Eurostar can?
The Comfort Factor
I haven’t travelled in steerage on the new trains, as I always pay about thirty-forty pounds extra for Premium Economy, so I get the following benefits.
- A very pleasant gluten-free meal.
- A much more spacious environment.
- It’s also rare that I don’t get a window seat.
But if I did use steerage, it would be a more pleasant experience than flying on a budget airline.
I think it’s been about ten years since I flew to a city within a two-hour flight of London, where there was a rail alternative.
I also tend to come home by rail, where I often get a connection to Brussels or Paris to catch a late Eurostar to London.
Comparing London-Amsterdam With London-Edinburgh
Both routes take about four hours by train, with the Dutch route slightly quicker.
Generally, trains operate between London and Edinburgh half-hourly for much of the day, whereas Eurostar only runs twice a day.
Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Schipol Airport is surely a much bigger market in terms of possible passengers, than the Edinburgh catchment area.
I think we’ll see the astute Dutch, using Eurostar as a marketing tool to attract more passengers to the Netherlands and London’s next airport at Schipol.
Especially, as the British seem very happy with a four-hour train ride in comfort.
Eurostar Will Grow Between London And Amsterdam
For these and other rambling reasons, I think that Eurostar to Amsterdam will grow to be a successful route.
The one thing they must do, is to make it possible to come back to London, without having to clear immigration and security in Brussels.
But Eurostar know that!
Amsterdam Is Just The Hors D’Oeuvre!
Once Eurostar and the Dutch get the route between London and the Netherlands working smoothly, I don’t think it will be long before other routes are inaugurated.
Eurostar have said these could be.
- Bordeaux
- Cologne and Frankfurt
- Geneva
The key will be getting the immigration and security smooth.
I think it will continue to improve, as it seems to do, every time I travel.
Remember, the Belgians, Dutch, French, Germans and Swiss will want it to be smooth, as they will want to market their delights to a whole new market, so suspect a lot of co-operation, despite the decision of Brexit.
But, I think that a limit on a journey time of four or five hours would cut out a lot of other destinations.
Although many of the destinations like Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva and Paris will be places to have an enjoyable day or two before taking another train ride further afield.
The 15:00 From Amsterdam Centraal To Berlin
This train that leaves Amsterdam Centraal just under two hours after the Eurostar arrives and can take you all the way to Berlin, arriving at 21:22.
But this train with a change at Osnabruck, gives you a stopping-off point to Bremen, Hamburg and the Northern part of Germany.
I first came across Osnabruck, when I was left there without a train by Deutsche Bahn, as I wrote about in From Hamburg To Osnabruck By Train.
But I found a delightful hotel on the station forecourt, called the Advena Hotel Hohenzollern.
Trip Advisor give it four out of five and currently say deals are available at under seventy pounds a night.
Osnabruck is not a tourist town, but it sits where the North-South and East-West rail routes cross.
Conclusion
As the network develops, I believe that a whole new form of tourism will take advantage.
Direct Fast Train To Bordeaux Opens Up Grape Expectations
The title of this post is the same as that as an article on Page 11 of today’s Sunday Times.
Points from the article.
- SNCF and Eurostar are talking seriously about the route.
- The journey would be less than five hours.
- The service would go through Lille.
- Preferably, customs would be in Bordeaux.
- Markets include lovers of fine wines, those with holiday homes in the Dordogne and the 1.4m passengers, who fly.
- Servies could be launched by 2022.
- Fares could be as low as £90 return.
- Eurostar would probably run the service.
Points from the Internet and myself.
- SNCF already run a direct service between Lille and Bordeaux, that takes four hours thirty-two minutes with eleven stops.
- It skirts to the East and South of Paris.
- London to Lille can be achieved in one hour and twenty-two minutes.
- All of the other possible intermediate stops like Charles de Gaulle Airport and Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy for Eurodisney are covered by other services
- Under five hours is a necessity for sales and marketing purposes.
On the face of it, it would appear that under five hours is challenging, but what would happen to the times, if the journey was non-stop?
It must be under five hours!
I can’t wait for it to start.
Where Next?
Eurostar currently runs regularly to the following places.
- Amsterdam
- Avignon
- Brussels
- Lille
- Lyon
- Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy
- Marseilles
- Paris
- Rotterdam
In addition, various ski resorts are served in winter.
Frontrunners for services must be Cologne, Frankfurt and Geneva, but then Eurostar will be tracking ticket sales to make sure they add the right destinations.
Cologne is my preference for another destination.
- Cologne is an hour and fifty minutes from Brussels.
- It is well-connected to the rest of Germany.
- Frankfurt is only 62 minutes away on the Cologne-Frankfurt High Speed Line.
- Eurostar’s Class 374 trains, would appear to have sufficient power for inclines of the Cologne-Frankfurt High Speed Line.
I estimate that the time from London to Cologne will be something like three hours and forty minutes.
But if the service were to be extended to Frankfurt along the Cologne-Frankfurt High Speed Line, London to Frankfurt should be under five hours.
More Details On 30th April 2018
There is an article on Global Rail News, which gives more details.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The owner and operator of the UK’s first high-speed line has revealed it is in advanced discussions with three international operators to launch a direct high-speed train from London to Bordeaux.
HS1 Ltd, Lisea, Eurotunnel and SNCF Réseau are working on agreed timetable slots and train routes and hope that a new international train operator will be able to get the route up and running “in a couple of years”.
Who is Lisea?
Lisea is the joint venture, that built the LGV Sud Europe Atlantique to Bordeaux and now operate the line. This is all explained in this extract from the Wikipedia entry for the line.
The line was built by consortium LISEA consisting of Vinci Concessions (fr) (Vinci SA subsidiary) – 33.4%, Caisse des dépôts et consignations – 25.4%, Meridiam – 22.0% and Ardian – 19.2%. The consortium will operate and maintain the line until 2061, and will charge tolls to train companies. The consortium invested €3.8 billion, French government, local authorities and the European Union paid €3 billion and €1 billion was contributed by SNCF Réseau (fr) (subsidiary of SNCF. Another €1.2 billion was spent by SNCF Réseau on the construction of interconnecting lines, control centres, capacity enhancements at Bordeaux and remodelling the track layout at Gare Montparnasse.
It looks very much like a French PFI.
Who Are SNCF Réseau?
This definition of SNCF Réseau is from Wikipedia.
SNCF Réseau is the infrastructure division of SNCF, and carries out track and other infrastructure maintenance, design and construction. Subsidiaries in the group include Systra, Inexia and SNCF International.
I have read that SNCF Réseau can be thought of as a French Network Rail.
More On Where Next?
The Global Rail News article also says this.
HS1 is also in discussions with operators to launch routes to Frankfurt and Geneva and has appointed a new market development lead, Edmund Butcher, to develop these plans.
As I said earlier, London-Frankfurt times would appear to be under five hours.
I can’t find a definitive time between London and Geneva, but I suspect it’s under six hours.
Other places and times could be.
- Barcelona – Under ten hours – But gorgeous views through the Camargue.
- Nice – Under nine hours – I did it once, as I wrote in Cambridge to Nice by Train.
It should also be noted, that as the French and German high speed networks grow, there will be large numbers of places accessible within a day, with a single change at places like Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lille, Lyon and Marseille.
I haven’t mentioned Paris, as changing at Paris often involved a trek across the city!
From Frankfurt To Darmstadt
It didn’t take me long to get fed up with exploring Frankfurt, with its unfathomable U-Bahn/S-Bahn system, lack of information and maps, endless stairs to the U-Bahn. I mentioned all this in the Tourist Office as I left and the lady said that they keep telling the authorities about the information and especially the dreadful map, but nothing happens. All they need to do is talk to Munich, where everything is so much better.
I was also finding it difficult to find a cafe where I might get something delicious and gluten-free for lunch.
So I implemented Plan B and took a train to Darmstadt, which is just a few kilometres north of Frankfurt.
I started by catching the train in an S-Bahn platform underneath the Hauptbahnhof and within an hour I was in Darmstadt, where with help from a guy in the tram information, I got a go-anywhere ticket for the trams and started to explore.
Exploring Frankfurt
In the morning, I explored Frankfurt.
It was still cold and the city doesn’t seem to wake up as early as London or Berlin.
Frankfurt At Night
I went and had a look at Frankfurt by night.
I ate supper at Fisch Franke and it was an excellent gluten-free fish and chips.
The only problem I had was that it was bitterly cold and getting back to my hotel I got lost and a ten minute walk took thirty minutes. Frankfurt is not too well served by maps.
My Eyrie In Frankfurt
I thought I’d stay somewhere more expensive in Frankfurt, so I booked a room in a tower hotel on the 29th floor.
Everything was fine, except for some of the views in the morning due to the weather and the fact that they didn’t provide any cups for tea,although they did provide tea, coffee, creamer and a kettle.
I certainly won’t be staying there again! The wi-fi was also too complicated and the security was more applicable to Fort Knox. It was also extremely difficult to find from the nearest stop on the Frankfurt U-Bahn, but I can’t blame that on the hotel.
From Kassel To Frankfurt
I could have taken a German ICE train from Kassel to Frankfurt, but I took a regional train, hoping to get some good views from the top deck.
Unfortunately, as the pictures show, the weather wasn’t that good. But you do see the countryside better from the high position and the comfort and ride is of the same standard as something like the ubiquitous Class 377 in the UK.
One reason I took this train, was that I’d been told by the lady in the Tourist Office in Kassel to buy a Hesse Ticket.
My Hesse Ticket
I thought it was a bit steep at €33 for twenty-four hours, but it did include the buses and trams in Frankfurt and the train between the two cities.
The price actually included up to five passengers. But there is no similar ticket for a person like me, who usually travels alone.
How visitor-friendly is that?
The Anonymous Widower 