GetlinkLast year, the Channel Tunnel operator was campaigning for the arrival of new operators on its routes. Now it has been served, with applicants flocking to the entrance to the Channel in order to break the Eurostar monopoly. After Evolyn associated Trenitalia positioned for 2026 then Virgin Trains expected in 2030, it will be the turn ofUber to embark on this adventure on the horizon 2029. The American VTC group intends to use its app to distribute branded train tickets between London, Paris and Brussels. However, Uber will only be the commercial brand for this rail project, which has been developed over the last two years by the British start-up Gemini.
" With significant growth forecast, the Channel route is ideal for an Open Access rail competition "This is the view expressed on the Gemini website, which aims to offer new-look trains and an innovative approach to the distribution of business and leisure travel. Led by Lord Tony Berkeley, a British railway engineer who helped build the Channel Tunnel, the project provides for five daily connections to Paris and Brussels from 2029 onwards.
Departures and arrivals from Stratford International station
Unlike Eurostar, Virgin Trains and Evolyn/Trenitalia, Gemini Trains intends to use the station at Stratford and not St. Pancras International, due to its approaching saturation point and the major works planned to increase its capacity. Located in East London, Stratford station has good connections with the London Underground and the suburban rail network in the south-east of the capital. On the way, there will be stops in Lille and Ebbsfleet, a station in Kent where Eurostar trains have not stopped for several years.
The question of trains and their maintenance
Gemini Trains has applied to the Office of Rail and Road for access for these future trains to the Temple Mills maintenance depot currently used by Eurostar. The SNCF subsidiary is concerned about the arrival of these new competitors at Temple Mills, believing that the opening up of the depot could be detrimental to the operation of its trains. In its letter to the British government, Eurostar asks that Temple Mills be extended or that a second depot be opened for the new entrants.
Although Eurostar is seeing competitors emerge from the woodwork, with the applications filed with the Office of Rail and Road now made public, it is not certain that all will succeed. Gemini Trains, for example, still has to finalise a major fund raising which will enable an order for the trainsets to be placed with a rail manufacturer. And Alstom's order book is already particularly full, with the French group struggling to meet demand. The construction of a new production line for the Avelia Horizon TGV trainsets ordered by SNCF, Virgin Trains and Velvet is expected to begin in Valenciennes.
