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Germanophile? Teutonophile? Deutschophile? Whatever label you choose, if you’re a lover of German culture, we have good news.
Back in December we reported that Eurostar had revealed plans to launch high-speed rail routes between London and Germany. Its plans to offer direct services to the likes of Cologne and Frankfurt are still in the works, and if everything goes to plan, we could see Eurostar trains pulling into these German cities by the early 2030s.
Turns out, though, Eurostar isn’t the only one with big, high-speed rail plans. In fact, we could be getting trips to Cologne even sooner thanks to one of its rivals.
Gemini Trains has announced its own plans to run competing services to Cologne as early as 2030. The British start-up, which is backed by a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, also wants to journey to Paris (stopping off at Disneyland and Charles de Gaulle airport) as well as Brussels, with plans to expand further into Frankfurt and Düsseldorf in the future.
Gemini’s ambitions would see Stratford International join St Pancras in offering international train trips from the Big Smoke. Services could also stop at Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent, where Eurostar last stopped in 2020.
Gemini intends to lease eight electric trains which will each fit more than 550 passengers, with plans to run 11 services a day by 2030. In comparison, Eurostar runs about 26 services a day from London, but Gemini has hinted at ‘rapid expansion’ once its fleet is up and running.
Eurostar has been the only commercial operator in the Channel Tunnel for more than 30 years, but the company currently only uses around 50 per cent of the slots on the track. Recent changes have allowed other train companies to launch their own competing services.
Adrian Quine, CEO of Gemini Trains, said the company plans to ‘shake things up by offering new routes, new stations, new trains, new interiors, new cheaper fares and encouraging people to shift from plane to train’.
Direct trains will slim the travel time to Cologne down from around six hours (with at least one change) to a direct four-hour journey. Ticket prices from London to Cologne haven’t been released yet, but Gemini estimates that introductory one-way fares to Paris will be priced from about £59.
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