A new rail operator, Gemini Trains, has announced plans to launch a competing service from London to Paris and Cologne by 2030, challenging Eurostar's monopoly. The British start-up, backed by a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, aims to offer one-way tickets to Paris from £59, using dynamic pricing.
Service details and routes
The trains will depart from Stratford International station, not St Pancras where Eurostar operates. Gemini will lease eight electric 200-metre trains, each carrying 550 passengers. The operator plans 11 services per day by 2030, with later expansion to Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.
Standard class will feature "more comfortable seats, good wifi and mood lighting", while business class includes food and a privacy screen, according to The Times.
Market opportunity and quotes
Adrian Quine, chief executive of Gemini Trains, said: "The forecast growth through the Channel Tunnel is enormous, yet only 50 per cent of the slots on the track are currently used. Eurostar, a monopoly operator, has become lacklustre and very expensive."
Quine added: "We will 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." He described Gemini as a "disruptor operator" and noted that "for too long there has been no choice but Eurostar, who in 32 years have opened up virtually no new routes and in fact have cut some."
