London St. Pancras Higspeed has teamed up with the company Eurostar in order to increase capacity at London's St. Pancras International whose passenger numbers are growing and will increase significantly over the next decade. The number of Eurostar links between London and Amsterdam will be increased to 5 by the end of 2025, following on from last year's success with 280,000 additional passengers on the Paris-London route and 250,000 more on the London-Brussels route. This project is based on a study delivered in 2024 on ways to welcome and better manage passenger flows, which will improve the travel experience between the Old Continent and the British capital.
The architectural firm Hawkins/Bown has been commissioned to carry out the design study for the redevelopment of this station, with a view to operating it more efficiently and handling more passengers in the future. The practice has already worked on Stratford International station and other transport facilities in the UK. Located in the King's Cross district, St. Pancras International has been the departure and arrival station for Eurostar trains since 2007, when it replaced Waterloo Station, which was located south of the River Thames. As well as improving passenger services, the move cut journey times by 20 minutes.
Work to increase throughput at security checks
This partnership between London St. Pancras Highspeed and Eurostar will take place in three stages. The first aims to improve security processes, and in particular the clearance of checks, in order to increase the number of passengers handled per hour by 2,700 over the next 3 to 4 years. The second stage will involve redesigning the station's international zone and its links with the main concourse in order to better manage passenger flows. Scheduled for completion by 2028, this work is designed to more than double the station's processing capacity, so that it can handle 5,000 passengers every hour, compared with 2,000 at present. The third phase, extending into the 2030s, will look at possible future developments to the building to further increase its capacity. In particular, passenger arrivals could be moved upstairs.
A redevelopment that should benefit new operators
London St. Pancras Highspeed, which operates the high-speed line on the British side and manages St. Pancras International station, is preparing for the arrival of the new high-speed line. cross-Channel traffic expected to triple by 2040 representing traffic of 35 million passengers a year compared with 11 million today. Several operators are said to be in the starting blocks to launch cross-Channel services from 2029, including Trenitalia and Virgin Atlantic. " If other operators were to enter the market, [we] would enter into discussions with LSPHS about how the space is used and what we are charged for it." a Eurostar representative told us.
Anticipating the arrival of these competitors on its star route, the SNCF subsidiary is planning to launch new high-speed services from London to Frankfurt and Geneva. " Eurostar is the sustainable gateway to Europe, already welcoming up to 45,000 customers a day at St Pancras, with demand constantly rising. As we plan to expand our fleet from the early 2030s and increase our services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and now Germany and Switzerland, this project will play a key role in enabling this growth and continuing to deliver a unique and seamless customer experience." said Simon Lejeune, Chief Safety and Stations Officer at Eurostar.
Thanks to its order for 50 high-speed trains and the increase in 2030 to 20 daily frequencies (from 17 at present) on the Paris-London line, Eurostar aims to increase traffic on this route by 2 million passengers a year over the decade to 2030. These forecasts will also require an extension to Eurostar's international terminal at Paris Gare du Nord, work on which is due to start in 2026.
