Virgin seeks £700 million to compete with Eurostar to Brussels

Virgin Group’s British businessman and billionaire Richard Branson wants to raise 700 million pounds (834 million euros) from investors to launch a train service between Brussels, Paris, and London to rival Eurostar, reports the Financial Times business newspaper.

Virgin expects to tune the trains as early as 2029, initially from London to Paris and Brussels and later to Amsterdam.

Other competitors lurking

According to the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Virgin is now planning to order 12 high-speed trains. The company would now have to choose between two suppliers it had selected after evaluating high-speed trains from Alstom, Siemens, Hitachi, and Talgo. The project is expected to cost 1 billion pounds (1,19 billion euros) to get off the ground.

Virgin, which previously operated train services in Britain (including between London and Glasgow), is not the only company considering competing with Eurostar. Spain’s Evolyn, for example, is also toying with plans to establish such a service. Spain’s national rail operator Renfe and Dutch start-up Heuro also announced plans to offer services from Amsterdam to both London and Paris.

Getlink, the French-British company that operates the Channel Tunnel under concession, has said that it plans to make the tunnel available to other operators. However, Getlink and London’s St. Pancras train station have also agreed to work together to increase services between Britain and France and open rail lines to Germany and Switzerland.

Eurostar blocks depot

Eurostar began in 1994 and has since had a monopoly on passenger transport through the Channel Tunnel, although Getlink’s Le Shuttle also takes cars with drivers and passengers.

Just last November, Evolyn went to the British rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road. Eurostar denied it access to the Temple Mills rail depot in east London. Eurostar leases this depot, but because it is the only depot for storing the high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel, Eurostar’s competitors must also store their trains here. Evolyn and Virgin have been told by Eurostar that there is no space for them.

In the past, Eurostar has also faced much criticism over the high prices it charges there and has also dropped its international services from Ashford and Ebbsfleet in Kent. At the same time, it has stated that the Temple Mills depot is already too busy handling its own fleet for more trains.

Last month, Eurostar was branded the worst-performing rail service in Europe in a popular ranking. The report from the campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E) scored Europe’s rail operators on factors such as ticket prices, punctuality, and willingness to give refunds.