As much as we all want to travel more sustainably, there are still only a handful of places abroad that you can get to directly by train instead of flying. But as we speak, there are a bunch of people looking to change that.
Although we might be losing Eurostar routes from Amsterdam for six months, it looks like there may be new cross-Channel journeys to look forward to in the near future. All aboard!
Getlink, which owns the Eurotunnel, has said that within the next five years we could enjoy direct high-speed train routes from London to Cologne and Frankfurt in Germany and Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland. Don’t get it twisted, these journeys will take a while – they're expected to be around five to six hours. But you can relax in the carriage feeling a bit more guilt-free.
According to Yann Leriche, Getlink’s CEO, the Eurotunnel could eventually expect to take 30 to 40 percent of airline traffic to those destinations.
And the new routes may not come from Eurostar. Spanish rail firm Evolyn and Dutch company Heuro have both expressed interest in operating Eurotunnel services, so Eurostar may finally have some competition. And greater competition could lead to cheaper fares, so we’re certainly not complaining.
In other cross-channel travel news, there are rumours that Richard Branson is planning to launch a rival to the Eurostar and Evolyn will be launching new routes to Paris in 2025. There’s also a bunch of cool newly released Eurostar routes that you can look into this winter.
Did you see that it’s now illegal to park on the pavement in Scotland?
Plus: here’s how locals are planning to stop the controversial Stonehenge tunnel.
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