The high-speed rail company Eurostar is getting ready to invest in as many as 50 new trains after a successful debt refinancing deal and a solid financial year in 2023.
According to Eurostar, the new fleet will guarantee there is enough capacity for the 30 million people annually it hopes to carry by 2030 as well as to support future expansion as the demand for environmentally friendly travel grows.
Its fleet would grow from 51 to 67 with the addition of the new trains. It will retire its e300s, PBKAs and PBAs but keep its 17 e320 trains. Eight e300s that Alstom provided for the 1994 Channel Tunnel opening are operated by Eurostar on cross-Channel trips to London.
The nine PBA and 17 PBKA high-speed trains that run on the former Thalys routes from Paris to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne were also constructed by Alstom; the current order is expected to replace these Alstom trains.
Eurostar announced in January it will continue operating its direct service between London and Amsterdam this summer. The high-speed train service company said it had found a solution to the part-closure of its station in the Dutch capital.
Eurostar was expected to suspend its St Pancras to Amsterdam service from June 2024 to May 2025 because of extensive renovations at Amsterdam Centraal.
However, services will be reduced from four to three a day and passengers returning to London will have to change at Brussels. This will add between 48 minutes and one hour to the journey.
Following a petition that gathered more than 46,000 signatures since its initiation in March last year, Eurostar services are also set to resume at Ashford International Station in Kent.
Since March 2020, the company's trains have not stopped at Ashford or Ebbsfleet. The operator said this was a result of the effects of the coronavirus outbreak and Brexit. Eurostar had previously said its services may not stop in Kent again until 2025.
Trains had frequently stopped at Ashford International and Ebbsfleet terminals on journeys to Europe. So where does it stop now?
Where does Eurostar stop?
Eurostar stops at 28 stations across Europe.
France has the most stops with Paris Gare du Nord, Lille Europe and Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy (Disneyland Paris). Trains also stop in the French Alps (Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers, Aime-La-Plagne, Landry and Bourg-Saint-Maurice) – but during the winter only. There are also stops in the south of France every Saturday throughout the summer at Marseille, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Valence.
Belgium's three stops are Brussels-Midi/Zuid, Antwerp and Liège. The Netherlands has two stops: Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal.
Germany's three stops are at Cologne, Aachen and Düsseldorf.
In the UK, Eurostar stops at only London St Pancras International.
Eurostar stops at three airports: Düsseldorf in Germany, Schiphol in Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Established in 1994, Eurostar introduced high-speed train services between London, Paris and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel.
