A new consortium is making plans to compete with Eurostar at train service through the Channel Tunnel, an idea that’s been proposed and dropped nearly a dozen times, but whose time may have come.
The group, which includes UK company Mobico (formerly National Express) and Spain’s Cosmen family, a Mobico shareholder, has been in talks with train-builder Alstom about ordering trains that meet the Channel Tunnel’s specific requirements.
Since the ‘Chunnel’ first opened, Eurostar has been the sole operator of passenger trains through it; others operate freight and car-transport services. Among those who have planned and then abandoned competing passenger service are such major operators as Spain’s RENFE and Deutsche Bahn.
Getlink, the actual operator of the tunnel, says that there is room to at least double the passenger operation, and would like to see that happen—to the extent that it said last year it was planning to buy trains of its own to lease to potential Eurostar competitors.
One big obstacle to competition plans: While the EU has been strongly encouraging competition on rails throughout Europe, passenger volume through the tunnel has been depressed, partly by the pandemic years and partly by the increasing difficulty of post-Brexit border issues.
